Household debt keeps Thailand Southeast Asia's sick man

Thai households are among the region's biggest borrowers, a credit binge stoked by populist policies and low bank interest rates -- but also low wages that keep the poor perilously close to the breadline and make them ready bait for illegal loan sharks. The debt levels are worrying the generals who seized power last May promising to end a near-decade of political turmoil and restore zip to Thailand's once-dynamic economy. The country narrowly avoided recession during protests against t