Living Internationally
Opportunities at many Ends of the World...
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”
~ Mark Twain, from The Innocents Abroad (1869)
Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Panama City, Panama…
“I’m looking for my fifth overseas property,” announced one smartly dressed gentleman, “and perhaps a sixth.”
“I’d like a nice rental income,” added a pretty lady in a colorful cocktail dress, enjoying the warm ocean breeze on her back, “and a place to visit when it gets too cold back home…”
“As for me, I’m just looking for a place to go when ‘SHTF’…” declared another fellow, to nods of general approval from the rest of the group.
Your editor is here in Panama’s vibrant capital… looking… listening… learning...
Over the past couple of days, we’ve heard about opportunities for intrepid real estate investors hoping to snap up beachfront condos in places like Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, along Nicaragua’s Emerald Coast, and in the picturesque Dominican Republic… or to purchase hilltop villas in the rich, Italian countryside or along Portugal’s Algarve Coast… or perhaps to invest in Paraguay’s compelling macro story or gain access to early-stage developments right here in Panama, where lifestyle and investment opportunities converge not by chance, but by design…
Each of the deals offers its own compelling case. Pristine, white sand beaches… low cost of living amidst vibrant overseas communities… a second home or a reliable source of passive, “mailbox” income… and, of course, the dream of living an international lifestyle… the Caribbean one month, the Mediterranean the next.
Everyone has his own idea of happiness, of course, his very own version of “Shangri-La.”
“The first thing to do,” says Real Estate Trend Alert founder, Ronan McMahon, “is to profile yourself. What are you hoping to get out of your purchase? Are you looking for a second residence? A change of lifestyle? A revenue stream? A place to raise a family or start a business? Well, that’s the great thing about casting your net far and wide. When you’re willing to look everywhere, you’re bound to find somewhere, somewhere that’s just right for you.”
Unaccustomed to such unabashed optimism (having spent the past two decades at “doom and gloom” finance and economics conferences), we let our imagination roam...
With a half dozen new ‘must-visit’ destinations hastily jotted down in our notepad, we almost forgot we were due to give a presentation ourselves! Our topic, as faithful readers of these Notes will guess, was our own little End of the World...
The Perfect Storm
“For seventy-five years and more, Argentina has proven itself a world leader in economic self-sabotage and political ineptocracy,” we began, setting expectations suitably low.
“Corruption… collectivism… civil unrest… currency debasement… one economic crisis after another. What the Argentines do not know about how to run a country into the ground is probably not worth knowing.”
Then came the story we’ve been following in these pages, what we’ve been calling “The Greatest Political Experiment of our Age.” You know the broad brush strokes already…
Annualized inflation crushed from ~300% to ~30% (with core, or wholesale, inflation down further still)… ~60,000 federal government jobs axed, while 240,000 private sector jobs have ben added… GDP growth up from -1.6% in Q4, 2023, to a western world-leading +4.5% in 2025… and that during a period of unprecedented fiscal discipline, balanced budgets, massive deregulation and all the things we cover each and every week in these humble Notes…
As your editor was speaking to attendees here in Panama, on Friday morning, president Javier Milei and his top advisors were wrapping up “Argentina Week” in New York, during which the heads of major corporations lined up to meet with the radical libertarian leadership, including head honchos from Bank of America, Microsoft, Tesla/SpaceX, Ford, Adecoagro, Grupo Galicia, Grupo Murchison and JP Morgan.
“This president has very strong convictions about how to fix a country,” remarked JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who called the disinflation on the Pampas “a miracle.”
Dimon had previously said Argentina could attract “around $100 billion of foreign capital” if reforms continue and suggested Milei could “turn Argentina” if policies persist through his term.
Prescient remarks. Indeed, the past week alone saw over $16+ billion dollars of investments announced, many by Argentine companies that are aggressively expanding in their home country. From the Buenos Aires Herald:
“Mercado Libre [South America’s ‘Amazon’] will invest $3.4 billion to expand its logistics operations in the country, creating 1,900 direct jobs,” said a communiqué by the President’s Office.
Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS), also an Argentine firm, announced a $3 billion investment in Vaca Muerta to process natural gas liquids. Pampa Energía applied to join the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) with an investment of over $4.5 billion earmarked for the exploration and production of unconventional oil.
Meanwhile, Canadian-based mining firm First Quantum Minerals announced an investment of $5.25 billion in the Taca Taca copper project in the province of Salta, up where our old friend Bill Bonner raises his “sand-fed beef.”
Like international real estate investors, capital tends to go where it’s treated best. Naturally. And right now, after 75 years of basket case, deadbeat economics, Argentina is at long last beginning to realize its potential. As the head of Milei’s cabinet, Manuel Adorni, said from the sidelines of this week’s conference in New York City:
“We are facing a perfect storm for an economic revolution in the Argentine Republic.”
Watch this space for more…
Meanwhile, this past week your jet-lagged editor traveled from Tokyo to Southern California to the Lone State State, from where we mused on the future of robotaxis and AI and returned to one of our favorite themes, the protracted suicide of the once-relevant, long-disgraced Legacy Media. Please enjoy our Notes from the week past, below…
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
Final Notes…
Thanks to Ronan McMahon and the whole Real Estate Trend Alert team for inviting us to a lively event here in Panama this past week, and to Paradigm Press and International Living for their hospitality. And a special thanks to all the kindly attendees we met and conversed with over the weekend. It was a lot of fun!
We’ll hopefully hear more from Ronan and his team in these pages in the future, both as he and his team uncover opportunities in various exotic climes around the planet, and as we give more coverage to real estate markets down in Argentina, too.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
I am in my 80s and have been following Argentina for the last 60 years and I am super cautious about this change in Govt. For me it’s just a matter of time before the people vacillate and go back to socialism or some repressive form of government on the right. Sorry to rain on your parade, I hope I’m proven wrong because I really like this current president, but there’s the old saying “the past is prologue to the future“. I really hope that’s not the case here and that this country has really learned its lesson. Only time will tell.
Thank you Joel for another hopeful write🙏 It’s amazing how one leader can make or break a nation. There you have president Javier Milei, who has single handily broken the communist/socialist/globalist agenda in one swoop of freedom and capitalism. Even after a century of leftist indoctrination and destruction, common sense and the power of freedom finally rules over free stuff. We now have the same opportunity here in America, with the strongest leader and administration our country has ever experienced. The left continues its domination over media and education, but is getting its overdue butt kicking like the lefts psycho Islamic leader friends in Iran. I’m very excited for our current and future relationship between America and Argentina, and with two of the world’s strongest leaders working together, our entire hemisphere will be secure and prosperous together. 🙏