Expat Files – 03.27.16

BUILD YOUR LATIN AMERICAN DREAMHOUSE IN THE BEST OF NEIGHBORHOODS FOR $25 TO $50 A SQUARE FOOT:

Long time listeners know it’s my firm belief that there’s a huge real estate bubble in most all of Latin America. Anyone who’s had substantial boots on the ground will confirm that. So don’t be a clueless gringo and buy at the top!! However, if you can find a nice piece of land at the right price, you can build the house of your dreams for $25 to $50 a square foot, complete. Today we have a strategy and some tips to help you find the perfect neighborhood…

IT’S DEFINITELY A RENTER’S MARKET: WITH THE REAL ESTATE BUBBLE CRACKING AS WE SPEAK: That said, when “off the tourist trail” you’ll simply be amazed at what you can rent for a mere $300 to $700 a month. Today we have some real life examples…

DON’T GET SUCKED IN BY FRIENDLY GRINGOS AND THEIR SO-CALLED “GROUND FLOOR” REAL ESTATE DEALS: So when “on the gringo tourist trail” beware of slick gringo real estate agents/salesmen trying to get you into the bubble. Yes, they’re experts at sizing up clueless gringos and spotting suckers. They’ll take advantage of your crappy Spanish, short time down, and obvious lack of boots on the ground… as well as the brain-fogging Zoloft effect the soothing tropical climate has on fresh, green gringos (especially true if a gringo’s 1st world life consists of 6 months of snow and cold).

Note: when “off the tourist trail” there will be no such Gringo real estate guys pressing you, but there’s still a huge bubble, so don’t get sucked in by clueless local Latin agents either…

NOPE, THERE ARE NO CHEAP “GROUND FLOOR” REAL ESTATE DEALS LEFT IN LATIN AMERICA: certainly not “on the tourist trail” in places like Panama, CR, Mexico, Belize, and now Nicaragua, Ecuador, Colombia and Uruguay. And here’s why…

MIGHT YOUR SECRET DREAM BE A BEACH HOUSE RIGHT ON THE OCEAN? Well guess what? When the bubble cracks, beach houses are often the first properties desperate sellers put on the market. How does a 3 bedroom beach house, with pool, right on the ocean for $100k or less sound to you? Right now, desperate sellers are starting to come out of the woodwork and today we have examples of some fabulous deals that have hit the market. For this you’ll need boots on the ground. You won’t find this stuff on the internet… not in English anyway.

The Gary Null Show – 03.04.16

Dr. Jim Garrison is the founding President of Ubiquity University and the Wisdom School of Graduate Studies, an international school of higher education built upon innovative principles of whole brain and whole system learning. The university operates on four continents with partners in the EU, India, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Vietnam and others. As the co-founder and President of the Gorbachev Foundation, Jim was instrumental in the founding of the State of the World Forum to lay a template for a more sustainable global civilization. In the late 80s he served as the executive director of the Esalen Institute Soviet-American Exchange, and founded the International Foreign Policy Association in collaboration with Secretary of State George Schultz and Georgian President Edward Shevardnadze to provide humanitarian relief to children in former Soviet republics. Jim has graduate degrees in religion and theology from Harvard and Cambridge universities. His websites are WisdomUniversity.org and UbiquityUniversity.org

John Perkins, primarily through the 1970s and 1980s, was an economic hit man (EHM), a job to convince leaders of developing nations to accept economic conditions that benefit US private and government interests. He was a direct participant or witness to such dramatic modern events as the Saudi Arabian Money Laundering scandal, the fall of the Shah of Iran, the assassinations of Eucador’s and Panama’s democratically elected presidents, and other government and corporate intrigues. John was a chief economist for a large international consulting firm advising the World Bank and IMF, the UN, Fortune 500 companies and many national governments. Since leaving his covert activities, John been a champion of indigenous spiritual cultures and environmental movements through his non profit projects Dream Change and the Pachamama Alliance. After 911, John broke his silence with the publication of his international best seller that has just been fully revised and published as “The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, to explain that rather than a corrupt specialized activity among select consulting and international construction firms in the past, the system of economic hit men has rather become more sophisticated, more devious, and more widespread, even through the halls of government, and is now intentionally bankrupting the US as it has done in the past with developing nations. His website is JohnPerkins.org where people can receive his newsletter.

Expat Files – 08.09.15

-How to see Central America on the cheap (but not backpacker cheap):
Today we have a story of a lone gringo’s 10 week trip through most all of Central America. He did it by way of the Latin version of a private Greyhound Bus. Starting his trip in Panama, he travelled northward and explored most major cities and attractions in Central America- ending finally in Mexico. He explains how he did the trip on only $35 a day which included the bus tickets and three day stay at the all-inclusive Decameron resort in El Salvador. He gives great advice and tips spelling out how anyone can do much the same thing…

Expat Files – 05.01.15

-Today we have a disturbing email from a female public high-school English teacher(in the states) hoping beyond hope that she can last just two more years and get her pension. Then it’s get the hell out of Dodge and down to Latin America.

-It’s not Carnival time, so why are there hundreds of thousands of people marching in the streets of Brazil? Here’s a hint… the Brazilian president’s popularity is at an all-time historic low of 13%. Yes, it’s a political corruption of massive proportions (again) but this time the media and the people have solid goods on the crooks in office. The snakes won’t easily buy or squirm out of this one.

The Numbers Are Staggering: U.S. Is ‘World Leader’ in Child Poverty – Paul Buchheit

America’s wealth grew by 60 percent [3] in the past six years, by over $30 trillion. In approximately the same time, the number of homeless children has also grown by 60 percent [4]. Financier and CEO Peter Schiff said [5], “People don’t go hungry in a capitalist economy.” The 16 million kids [6] on food stamps know what it’s like to go hungry. Perhaps, some in Congress would say, those …

Expat Files – 03.22.15

-Just like in the US, Latin governments are terribly corrupt… so the next duly (or unduly) elected chief thief nearly always finds the coffers empty. But no matter…. the next scumbag party chief thief in power does as every careless spendthrift government does and floats a new bond issue to cover the debt of the previous bond issue. Meanwhile, the …