While the Thai military has taken control of the country, Thailand’s people are waiting to hear from the King about his position on the takeover. Meanwhile, the streets are calm, with the BBC reporting: “The soldiers posted around the city waved and smiled at people passing by, even posing with local people for photographs next to their tanks.” Here’s what bloggers and economists are saying about the coup:

Violence erupted when soldiers fired on protesters in May 1992. Avoid protests because with martial law in place and the Constitution suspended, the military is known for doing what it wants. – Bangkok Pundit

During this present incident mobile phone and internet connections were never offline … International broadcast media was cut — most likely for fears that the tenacious Thaksin would attempt a speech that would then find its way back to his rural supporters on television. – 2Bangkok

The Military is staging a coup against the PM! The current government is down! The military has taken over. Isn’t that such a reverse of this?? … It’s all up to the King now. – gnarlykitty

So if the king tells [General] Sondhi to step down, he will. Military generals in the past — 1992 — have been cowed simply by his will alone … This means that in fact that king would have known this was going to happen … – Publius Pundit

National Australia Bank market analysts said … that Australian markets are likely to suffer negative sentiment in the wake of the coup in Thailand. “We would expect a weaker stock market and downward pressure on the Australian dollar, even if just for proximity reasons,” the NAB analysts said. – Forbes.com

The dollar opened lower today following a Thai military coup, which has rattled global financial markets. At 7am AEST the local unit was trading at $US0.7516/20, lower than yesterday’s close of 0.7552/56. – News.com.au

The baht fell 1.3% to 37.79 per (US) dollar at 1:03 p.m. in New York, from 37.29 late yesterday, the biggest decline since July 2002. – Bloomberg

Stocks dropped on Wall Street today after Thailand’s military launched a coup against the country’s prime minister. While they recovered most of their losses in late afternoon trading, major indexes all closed lower. – Irish Examiner

The (recent) political uncertainty has taken a toll on Thailand’s $188 billion economy, the second-largest in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. The Asian Development Bank this month cut its forecast for Thailand’s growth this year to 4.2% from 4.7%, citing political turmoil. – Bloomberg