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April 15, 2010 Medellin, Colombia Each year, the junior class at West Point must take a compulsory class in International Relations. Cadets call it “Sosh,” and the major milestone of the class is a mini thesis that ties together current events and irrelevant IR theories. If memory serves, the deadline is right around
April 14, 2010 Medellin, Colombia In yesterday’s letter, I told you why Medellin, Colombia might just be the greatest city in the world for some people. Well, today I had to send my assistant flowers because she got bombarded with so many subscriber emails questioning my sanity– “You must be kidding! Medellin is
April 13, 2010 Medellin, Colombia Just about anyone who has been to Medellin, Colombia in the past 5 years will tell you that the city is about as perfect as it gets. I’m one of them. Travel there yourself and you’ll find that it’s no understatement. Medellin is one of Colombia’s largest cities,
April 12, 2010 Medellin, Colombia As tectonic plates slowly drift over millions of years, an occasional fissure opens up in the earth’s surface. We call them volcanoes, and they provide a means for the earth to release some of the intense pressure that builds up over time. Volcanic eruptions are typically harmless… the
April 9, 2010 Panama City, Panama My time is winding up here in Panama and I’m trying to sort out my travel for the next few weeks. I need to be in the US for two conferences by April 26th, so that gives me about 2-weeks to kill. I’m thinking about heading to
April 8, 2010 Panama City, Panama Do you remember that really awkward phase we all went through as adolescents? Growth spurts, voice changes, menstruation, and yes, pimples– in the end, while we all came out of it more mature and grown up, there was a difficult and sometimes painful transition period in which
April 7, 2010 Darien, Panama My Panamanian boat captain looked at me like I was crazy. “Amigo, you shouldn’t jump in over here… the waves are very dangerous.” I agreed. But we had been trolling for sailfish for a couple of hours with absolutely no success, and I really felt like livening up
April 2, 2010 Panama City, Panama It’s been a great week so far in Panama. Each time I come back to this country I become even more sure in my conviction that Panama has a bright future. For the next few days, though, I am going to set aside market forecasts and expatriation
April 1, 2010 Panama City, Panama No place is perfect. There’s not a single country on the planet that is a total paradise, so prospective expats need to be willing to make compromises and trade-offs. Naturally, it’s much better to be well-informed in advance about the challenges and limitations about a particular country…
March 31, 2010 Panama City, Panama It appears that not all is amiss with sovereign debt: Panama may be one of the only bright spots, at least in the western hemisphere… the country recently had its debt rating upgraded by Fitch to ‘investment grade’ with a positive outlook. Now, I have been quite
March 29, 2010 Mexico City, Mexico I was reading some US government propaganda disguised as educational literature the other day, something from the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve… it’s the sort of corrupt dogma is typically used to instill blind and unquestioning faith in a defunct money system. Laughably, I noted the following
March 26, 2010 Vancouver, BC I’m headed to Panama shortly where I look forward to meeting up with my friends and colleagues in the Atlas 400 group. We’re going to an exclusive deep-sea fishing resort for a few days, and afterwards I plan on taking up some unfinished business in Panama. One of
March 25, 2010 Tokyo, Japan About 20-years ago, many of the world’s sovereign nations started down an interesting path. Region by region, governments formed supranational free trade blocs in order to facilitate economic growth. Supranational organizations were nothing new… from the failed League of Nations after the Great War to the UN and
March 24, 2010 Hong Kong, SAR One of the worst things that can happen to a country is to experience a brain-drain. The loss of productive people who create new technologies and companies means the loss of the jobs and wealth that they create. The long-term aggregate effects of this can be truly
March 23, 2010 Hong Kong, SAR The banking system in Hong Kong is one of the most advanced in the world, and if you’re shopping around for a place to plant a banking flag, you should definitely consider it. As a jurisdiction, Hong Kong was effectively founded and built into a global financial
