The post said that although things are not so good here in Ajijic, Lake Chapala it is the same worldwide and this too shall pass.

The financial crisis in the US is not a solitary situation and most other countries in the world are suffering too. Greece, Italy, England are also not doing so well financially at the moment but the good news is that the best minds in the world are working on a solution to the problem and, if the politicians can agree, some steps will be taken to resolve the financial downturn worldwide.

Surprisingly enough, Canada and Mexico are doing a lot better than most countries. Real Estate is booming in many markets in Canada and houses are still selling right here in Ajijic, Lake Chapala.

The economic climate is not great in the US which does affect us here but we would be smart to consider the growth we are experiencing in Mexico and that we are now indeed a development nation and no longer a third world country.

Yes, things are a little slow in some sectors, but by turning our minds to our own markets things can and are improving.

The US and the world will solve this financial crisis in due course and our job is to carry on until that happens, hopefully, sooner rather than later. The first step would be to realize the lost jobs in the US are not coming back and the so called “job creators” are well aware of this fact.

Globalization and technology have changed things forever and the thing now is to look forward to the areas of the future where new jobs will be created. I saw an excellent piece recently suggested that tourism is down 1/3 in the US because of visa restrictions so tourists are going elsewhere. If some of these restrictions were lifted the tourists would return and so would jobs in the tourism business.

That is one example but there are many more. A very respected man of impeccable credentials, Fareed Zakaria did a piece on jobs which was called “Restoring the American Dream: Getting Back to Work.” You can find this piece on the CNN website. It is very enlightening.

It is always easier to play the blame game but it seems to me it would be more productive to look forward rather than looking back. Better times are around the corner and we still are lucky enough to live and buy and sell real estate in paradise

First: A reality check on Mexico

Mexico is in a unique position to reap many of the benefits of the decline of the US economy. In order to not violate NAFTA and other agreements the U.S.A. cannot use direct protectionism, so it is content to allow the media to play this protectionist role. The U.S. media – over the last year – has portrayed Mexico as being on the brink of economic collapse and civil war. The Mexican people are either beheaded, kidnapped, poor, corrupt, or narco-traffickers. The American news media was particularly aggressive in the weeks leading up to spring break. The main reason for this is money. During that two-week period, over 120,000 young American citizens poured into Mexico and left behind hundreds of millions of dollars.

Let’s look at the reality of the massive drug and corruption problem, kidnappings, murders and money. The U.S. Secretary of State Clinton was clear in her honest assessment of the problem. “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent the weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians,” Clinton said. The other large illegal business that is smuggled into the U.S.A. that no one likes to talk about is Human Traffic for prostitution. This “business” is globally now competing with drugs in terms of profits.

It is critical to understand, however that the horrific violence in Mexico is over 95% confined to the three transshipping cities for these two businesses, Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales. The Mexican government is so serious about fighting this, that they have committed over 30,000 soldiers to these borders towns. There was a thoughtful article written by a professor at the University of Juarez. He was reminded of the Prohibition years in the U.S.A. and compared Juarez to Chicago when Al Capone was conducting his reign of terror capped off with The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. During these years, just like Juarez today, 99% of the citizens went about their daily lives and attended classes, went to the movies, restaurants, and parks.

Is there corruption in Mexico? YES !!! Is there an equal amount of corruption related to this business in the U.S.A.? YES !!!. When you have a pair of illegal businesses that generate over $300,000,000,000 in sales you will find massive corruption. Make no mistake about the Mexican Drug Cartel; these “businessmen” are 100 times more sophisticated than the bumbling bootleggers during Prohibition. They form profitable alliances all over the U.S.A. They do cost benefit analysis of their business much better than the US automobile industry. They have found over the years that the cost of bribing U.S. and Mexican Border Guards and the transportation costs of moving marijuana from Sinaloa to California have cut significantly into profits. That is why over the past 5-7 years they have been growing marijuana in State and Federal Parks and BLM land all across America. From a business standpoint, this is a tremendous cost savings on several levels. Let’s look at California as an example as one of the largest consumers. When you have $14.2 billion of Marijuana grown and consumed in one state, there is savings on transportation, less loss of product due to confiscation and an overall reduction cost of bribery with law enforcement and parks service people. Another great savings is the benefit to their employees. The penalties in Mexico for growing range from 5-15 years. The penalties in California, on average are 18 months, and out in 8 months. The same economic principles are now being applied to the methamphetamine factories.

FOX News continues to scare people with its focus on kidnapping. There are kidnappings in Mexico. The concentration of kidnappings has been in Mexico City, among the very rich and the three aforementioned border Cities. With the exception of Mexico City, the number one city for kidnappings among NAFTA countries is Phoenix, Arizona with over 359 in 2008. The Phoenix Police estimate that twice that number of kidnappings goes unreported, because like Mexico 99% of these crimes were directly related to drug and human traffic. Phoenix, unfortunately, is geographically profitable transshipping location. Mexicans, just like 99% of U.S. Citizens during prohibition, go about their daily lives all over the country. They get up, go to school or work and live their lives untouched by the border town violence.

These same protectionist news sources have misled the public as to the real danger from the swine flu in Mexico and temporary devastated the tourism business. As of May 27 2009 there have been 87 deaths in Mexico from the swine flu. During those same five months there have been 36 murdered school children in Chicago. By their logic, if 87 deaths from the swine flu in Mexico warrants canceling flights and cruise ships to Mexico, then close all roads and highways in the USA because of record 43,359 automobile related deaths in the USA in 2008.

What is just getting underway is what many are calling the “Largest southern migration to Mexico of people and real estate assets since the Civil War” A significant percentage of the Baby Boomers have been doing the research and are making the life changing decision to move out of the U.S.A. The number one retirement destination in the world is Mexico. There are already over 2,000,000 US and Canadian property owners in Mexico. The most conservative number of American and Canadian Baby Boomers who are on their way to owning property in Mexico for full or part time living in the next 15 years is over 6,000,000. Do the math on 6,000,000 people buying a $300,000 house or condo and you will understand why the U.S. Government is trying to tax this massive shift of money to Mexico through H.R. 3056. The U.S. government calls this “The Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007″. Those who will have to pay it are calling this the EXIT TAX.

Mexico: A better economic choice than China

Another large exodus from the U.S.A is high paying skilled jobs. The job shift in automobile sector, both car and parts manufacturing, is already known by most investors. In the last few months as John Deere and Caterpillar have been laying off thousands of workers in the U.S.A., and hiring equal numbers in Mexico. The most recent industry that is making the shift is the aerospace manufacturers. In the city of Zacatecas there is currently a $210 million aerospace facility being built. With the 11 U.S. companies moving there, it is estimated to provide over 200,000 new high paying jobs in the coming years. One of the main factors for the shift in job south to Mexico instead of China is realistic analysis of total production, labor and delivery costs. While the labor costs in China are 40% less on average, the overall transportation costs and inherent risks of a long distance supply chain, and quality control issues, gives Mexico a distinct financial advantage.

Mexico’s real economic future

Mexico has avoided completely the subprime problem that has devastated the U.S. banking industry. The Mexican banks are healthy and profitable. Mexico has a growing and very healthy middle and upper middle class. The very recent introduction of residential financing has Mexico in a unique position of having over 90% of current homeowners owning their house outright. U.S. banks are competing for the Mexican, Canadian and American cross border loan business. It is and will continue to be a very safe and very profitable business. These same banks that were loaning in a reckless manner have learned their lesson and are loaning here the old fashioned way. They require a minimum of a 680 credit score, 30% down payment, and verifiable income that can support the loan. In most areas of Mexico where Baby Boomers are moving to, with the exception of Puerto Penasco (which did not have a national and international base of buyers), there is no real estate bubble.. The higher end markets ($2-20 million) in many of these destinations are going through a modest correction. The Baby Boomers market here is between $200,000 and $600,000. With the continuing demand inside the Bay of Banderas, that price point, in the coming years, will disappear. This is the reason the Mexican government is spending billions of dollars on more infrastructure north along the coast all the way up to Mazatlan.

The other major area where America has become overpriced is in the field of health care. This massive shift of revenues is estimated to add 5-7% to Mexico’s GDP. The name for this “business” is Medical Tourism. The two biggest competitors for Mexico were Thailand and India. Thailand and India’s biggest drawback is geography. Also recent events, Thailand’s inability to keep a government in place and the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai, have helped Mexico capture close to half of this growth industry. In Mexico today there are over 56 world class hospitals being built to keep up with this business.

Mexico is currently sitting on a cash surplus and an almost balanced budget. Most Americans have never heard of Carlos Slim until he loaned the New York Times $250 million. After that it became clear to many investors around the world what Mexicans already knew: that Mexico had been able to avoid the worst of the U.S. economic devastation. Mexico’s resilience is to be admired. When the U.S. Federal Reserve granted a $30 billion loan to each of Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, and Brazil, Mexico reinvested the money in Treasury bonds in an account in New York City.

According to oil traders, Mexico’s Pemex wisely as the price of oil shot to $147 a barrel put in place an investment strategy that hinged on oil trading in the range of $38-$60 a barrel. Since the beginning of 2009 Mexico has been collecting revenues on hedged positions that give them $90-$110 per barrel today. Mexico’s recent and under reported oil discovery in the Palaeo Channels of Chicontepec has placed it third in the world for oil reserves, right behind Canada and Saudi Arabia.

The following is a quote from Rosalind Wilson, President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce on March 19, 2009. “The strength of the Mexican economic system makes the country a favorite destination for Canadian investment”.

OPPORTUNITIES: WHY PUERTO VALLARTA & THE RIVIERA NAYARIT

The answer is simple and old fashioned: SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

The area of Puerto Vallarta/Riviera Nayarit inside the Bay of Banderas is an investor’s dream. This area has the comprehensive infrastructure in place, world class hospitals and dental care, natural investment protection from the Sierra Madre Mountains, endless future water supply, low to nonexistent crime, international airport, and limited supply inside the Bay, first class private bilingual schools and higher than average appreciation potential. Like many areas in Mexico there is large demand for full and part time retirement living and a lot of construction underway to meet this demand. Pre construction of course is where the best bargains are available.

I would offer a word of caution for investors in Mexico. Do not be seduced by the endless natural beauty that is everywhere, both inland in colonial towns and along thousands of miles of beach. Apply conservative medium and long term investment strategies without emotion. The demand for full and part time living by American and Canadian Baby Boomers is evident throughout the country. The top two choice locations are ocean front, and ocean view. The third overall choice, which is less expensive, is inland in one of the many beautiful colonial towns or small cities.

Mexico, with the world’s 13th largest GDP, is no longer a “Third World Country”, but rather a fast growing, economically secure state, as the most recent five-year history of its financial markets when compared to the U.S.A.’s financial markets suggests.

DOW JONES AVERAGES MAY 2004 10,200 – MAY 2009 8,200 20% LOSS IN 5 YEARS

MEXICAN BOLSA MAY 2004 10,000 – MAY 2009 23,000 130% GAIN IN 5 YEARS

Go to www.newamericamedia.org and enter the above title in search. Very interesting and positive information about our country.

Here we go again…..it’s like a daily ritual with the USA mainstream media. Today’s fake reality show episode comes to us from MSNBC with the omnious title “Time to say adios to Mexico travel?”.

In this paranoid fearmongering post, they take a poll asking “Would you visit Mexico given the worsening violence in some areas?”. The results are ugly and telling.

Eighty-Four percent (84%) of their readers chimed in shaking and quivering pushing that keyboard with an empahtic NO! I am sure if the button read NO F&#$ING WAY, that would be even more popular cause we’re dealing hysteria here folks.

How do I know? LOL! Because I have been living and travling all over Mexico for the past 12 years and that’s how I know and my wife of 26 years is Mexican.

For those of you 84 percenters, it’s called first hand knowledge and experience. Is that more credible than idiot pawn reporters working and getting paid by mainstream media living in the USA? What do you think? Yes, think!

Even more funny is that there are over 1,000,000 Americans living in Mexico who are laughing with me at this bullshit. Because Mexico is such a wonderful place to live, work, and travel, most of us get pissed off when hear this complete and utter bullshit over and over from US main stream media. That’s the first reaction. But since this war on Mexico has been going on for years now, after a while, we just start to realize that the USA is just neurotic, period! No hope!

After we get passed this accpetance, then we start to think…..geez us, maybe they should build that wall so we can keep this 84% out of Mexico. They have no clue on how stupid they sound when they try to talk about something they know nothing about. Worse, they are convinced that they live in the best most free country in the world even though there is NO evidence in 2011 that supports this bullshit.

USA # 1 right? Yeah, keep yelling it until you believe it with all your heart and then get your ass handed to you by the facists in Washington DC who control every aspect of your life. This is not 1950s America folks, this is Gattaca 2011.

I mean, we are talking about Mexico here; great weather, beautiful beaches, gorgeous señoritas, awesome and rich culture, friendly people with 1950′s American family values, and a heart that beats happy all day and night. No wars except the fake Drug War that the USA just loves to keep alive.

On the ground here, there is NO WAR. Read that again so you know its’ not a typo! NO WAR! Okay!

For 111,000,000 Mexicans, the war is virtually a non-issue. It’s just not in their face. Now, if you happen to be in the “selling drugs to sick Americans biz”, then, yes, you’d see it….everyday! No doubt about it. But in reality for most everyday Mexicans, this place is safer than most places on the planet.

Do you remember when kids used to walk down main street without fear? Yeah, I bet you do…..well in Mexico, they don’t wish this….this is how it is. The only place that have a high level of paranoia are in Juarez, a small city bordering Texas, and Mexico City with its over 25 million people.

In Juarez, the gangs are fighting to see who can sell drugs to those who demand them in the USA. The profits are so big that’s it’s out of control there. No question about it.

And in Mexico City, hey, there over 25 million people living there. What do you think it’s going to be? Do you walk around New York City with your head in the clouds? Come on! You need to be vigilant in any major metropolitian area. That’s normal. So save the stupid comments okay! I am talking about all of Mexico and not just Juarez or Mexico City. Heck, do you idiots travel to downtown Detroit for your vacation? Get real! Geez us people! Come on!

Anyway, yeah Mexico’s has more poverty than the USA….Opps! Scratch that! I was looking at 1998 stats! Opps! Mexico “used” to have more poverty than the USA. I mean given the complete USA meltdown over the last 10 years, believe me Mexicans are way more wealthy then the indebted enslaved brow beaten servants that the USA tries to call it’s middle class.

Heck my neighbor who lives in a colorful blue 500 sq. ft shack making $ 50 a week at the local fish plant is more wealthy than most Americans. At least she owns her own house! That’s right! Free and clear and her property tax is just $ 150 a year. Yep! That’s it. She don’t need no nuerotic BS about retiring when she’s 65 and some financial planning from a bankster who’s just going to rip her off.

And don’t get me started on healthcare in Mexico…..lets’ just say my daughter who is stuck in Dallas waiting in line at a doctors office with 50 others is begging to come to Mexico and get health care where doctors are trained to treat patients not insurance companies. Yeah! No waiting…..just go in and you can get 1 hour of face time with a GP, easy. And for $ 25. Not $ 500 for 10 minutes!

Anyway, the point is…..that all this bullshit about Mexico is fake made up BS from a determined US media who is aiming straight at the resort industry in Mexico.

And the truth is that this strategy is working. Just like when they scared the crap out of Joe American with their WMD bullshit and their Osama Bin Laden terror alerts waving all those dangerous yellows, oranges, and reds at us. All non-sense, yes! But effective like no other! Powerful stuff!

I mean, yeah, check it, I have a cousin Jethro who lives in Alabama. He has the stupid gall and arrogance to tell me how dangerous it is here in Mexico. Yeah, go figure! What a jerk! I told him to take his stupid right wing sorry dumb ass and plant it back on his Fox Idiot News Channel and stay the heck over there with his face planted on the “news”. This Joe-the Plumber moron deserves his ignorance for never questioning the sources of his “news” and “information”.

Of course, guaranteed, there will be 84% of you Jethro’s reading this who’ll side with my cousin and will have the stupidity to write lame ass comments here telling me how wrong I am and how right you are! You betcha! Heck you can put money on it right now! But to these fools I say “We got Osama Bin Laden, Yippee!”

But really, it’s not their brainwashed fault but the fault of their leadership who plays this game on them. And that’s the truly sad and tragic part of this story. Americans are the real losers here, not Mexico. Very seriously, I can’t tell you how sad it makes us expats who know the truth because we actually live and see both sides. It’s heartbreaking really.

Mexico has virtually accepted the fact that their fellow North American neighbor is just so over the top gone that it’s useless to even try.

Mexico has a growing middle class and their education system is providing their huge and large young population with better access to the future. The government and corporate PR advertising is getting stronger and promoting good responsible stuff to the youth. Its’ really good here. Impressive!

Can you ID the drug dealers on this dangerous beach in Playa del Carmen?

Now Mexico is reaching out to the rest of the global world to attract business and relying less and less on the USA for it’s travel industry.

I think that’s a great strategy that will bring dividends because, sadly, the USA is hopeless market! We’re dealing with a country that has 84% of it’s population believing that Mexico is dangerous when it’s the exact opposite. The USA is far more dangerous than Mexico!

Strange huh! Hearing that truth has gotta go against the mainstream but it is exactly true! Sorry to hurt your feelings!

In the end, the determination to assassinate the character of Mexico is too strong and deliberate by US main stream media.

There are many suspects for this delibrate attack but like all things in the USA, war is convoluted, ugly, messy and profitbale; so you know someone is making money off this deal. But who? It certainly ain’t cousin Jethro! And you? Are you making money off this deal? No? And now you’re mentally not able to come to a Mexican resort and enjoy hot warm oceans on sandy white beaches….really! Sucks to be you!

Now for those Americans living in Mexico reading this, I know I have been very direct with my fellow Americans here but the time to be subtle is over.

We tried being polite. Being polite and accomodating the neuroris is not working.

It’s time to hit back hard now and tell them the truth. Yes, the truth! Even if it hurts or they push back with made up FOX “facts”, sadly, it’s time to hit them back harder and maybe, just maybe, we can save a few from the grips of the brainwashing facsists posing as freedom sellers in blue and brown suits!

God Bless America …….and Mexico too!

Mexico is in a unique position to reap many of the benefits of the decline of the US economy. In order to not violate NAFTA and other agreements the U.S.A. cannot use direct protectionism, so it is content to allow the media to play this protectionist role. The U.S. media – over the last year – has portrayed Mexico as being on the brink of economic collapse and civil war. The Mexican people are either beheaded, kidnapped, poor, corrupt, or narco-traffickers. The American news media was particularly aggressive in the weeks leading up to spring break. The main reason for this is money. During that two-week period, over 120,000 young American citizens poured into Mexico and left behind hundreds of millions of dollars.

Let’s look at the reality of the massive drug and corruption problem, kidnappings, murders and money. The U.S. Secretary of State Clinton was clear in her honest assessment of the problem. “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent the weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians,” Clinton said. The other large illegal business that is smuggled into the U.S.A. that no one likes to talk about is Human Traffic for prostitution. This “business” is globally now competing with drugs in terms of profits.

It is critical to understand, however that the horrific violence in Mexico is over 95% confined to the three transshipping cities for these two businesses, Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales. The Mexican government is so serious about fighting this, that they have committed over 30,000 soldiers to these borders towns. There was a thoughtful article written by a professor at the University of Juarez. He was reminded of the Prohibition years in the U.S.A. and compared Juarez to Chicago when Al Capone was conducting his reign of terror capped off with The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. During these years, just like Juarez today, 99% of the citizens went about their daily lives and attended classes, went to the movies, restaurants, and parks.

Is there corruption in Mexico? YES !!! Is there an equal amount of corruption related to this business in the U.S.A.? YES !!!. When you have a pair of illegal businesses that generate over $300,000,000,000 in sales you will find massive corruption. Make no mistake about the Mexican Drug Cartel; these “businessmen” are 100 times more sophisticated than the bumbling bootleggers during Prohibition. They form profitable alliances all over the U.S.A. They do cost benefit analysis of their business much better than the US automobile industry. They have found over the years that the cost of bribing U.S. and Mexican Border Guards and the transportation costs of moving marijuana from Sinaloa to California have cut significantly into profits. That is why over the past 5-7 years they have been growing marijuana in State and Federal Parks and BLM land all across America. From a business standpoint, this is a tremendous cost savings on several levels. Let’s look at California as an example as one of the largest consumers. When you have $14.2 billion of Marijuana grown and consumed in one state, there is savings on transportation, less loss of product due to confiscation and an overall reduction cost of bribery with law enforcement and parks service people. Another great savings is the benefit to their employees. The penalties in Mexico for growing range from 5-15 years. The penalties in California, on average are 18 months, and out in 8 months. The same economic principles are now being applied to the methamphetamine factories.

FOX News continues to scare people with its focus on kidnapping. There are kidnappings in Mexico. The concentration of kidnappings has been in Mexico City, among the very rich and the three aforementioned border Cities. With the exception of Mexico City, the number one city for kidnappings among NAFTA countries is Phoenix, Arizona with over 359 in 2008. The Phoenix Police estimate that twice that number of kidnappings goes unreported, because like Mexico 99% of these crimes were directly related to drug and human traffic. Phoenix, unfortunately, is geographically profitable transshipping location. Mexicans, just like 99% of U.S. Citizens during prohibition, go about their daily lives all over the country. They get up, go to school or work and live their lives untouched by the border town violence.

These same protectionist news sources have misled the public as to the real danger from the swine flu in Mexico and temporary devastated the tourism business. As of May 27 2009 there have been 87 deaths in Mexico from the swine flu. During those same five months there have been 36 murdered school children in Chicago. By their logic, if 87 deaths from the swine flu in Mexico warrants canceling flights and cruise ships to Mexico, then close all roads and highways in the USA because of record 43,359 automobile related deaths in the USA in 2008.

What is just getting underway is what many are calling the “Largest southern migration to Mexico of people and real estate assets since the Civil War” A significant percentage of the Baby Boomers have been doing the research and are making the life changing decision to move out of the U.S.A. The number one retirement destination in the world is Mexico. There are already over 2,000,000 US and Canadian property owners in Mexico. The most conservative number of American and Canadian Baby Boomers who are on their way to owning property in Mexico for full or part time living in the next 15 years is over 6,000,000. Do the math on 6,000,000 people buying a $300,000 house or condo and you will understand why the U.S. Government is trying to tax this massive shift of money to Mexico through H.R. 3056. The U.S. government calls this “The Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007″. Those who will have to pay it are calling this the EXIT TAX.

Mexico: A better economic choice than China

Another large exodus from the U.S.A is high paying skilled jobs. The job shift in automobile sector, both car and parts manufacturing, is already known by most investors. In the last few months as John Deere and Caterpillar have been laying off thousands of workers in the U.S.A., and hiring equal numbers in Mexico. The most recent industry that is making the shift is the aerospace manufacturers. In the city of Zacatecas there is currently a $210 million aerospace facility being built. With the 11 U.S. companies moving there, it is estimated to provide over 200,000 new high paying jobs in the coming years. One of the main factors for the shift in job south to Mexico instead of China is realistic analysis of total production, labor and delivery costs. While the labor costs in China are 40% less on average, the overall transportation costs and inherent risks of a long distance supply chain, and quality control issues, gives Mexico a distinct financial advantage.

Mexico’s real economic future

Mexico has avoided completely the subprime problem that has devastated the U.S. banking industry. The Mexican banks are healthy and profitable. Mexico has a growing and very healthy middle and upper middle class. The very recent introduction of residential financing has Mexico in a unique position of having over 90% of current homeowners owning their house outright. U.S. banks are competing for the Mexican, Canadian and American cross border loan business. It is and will continue to be a very safe and very profitable business. These same banks that were loaning in a reckless manner have learned their lesson and are loaning here the old fashioned way. They require a minimum of a 680 credit score, 30% down payment, and verifiable income that can support the loan. In most areas of Mexico where Baby Boomers are moving to, with the exception of Puerto Penasco (which did not have a national and international base of buyers), there is no real estate bubble.. The higher end markets ($2-20 million) in many of these destinations are going through a modest correction. The Baby Boomers market here is between $200,000 and $600,000. With the continuing demand inside the Bay of Banderas, that price point, in the coming years, will disappear. This is the reason the Mexican government is spending billions of dollars on more infrastructure north along the coast all the way up to Mazatlan.

The other major area where America has become overpriced is in the field of health care. This massive shift of revenues is estimated to add 5-7% to Mexico’s GDP. The name for this “business” is Medical Tourism. The two biggest competitors for Mexico were Thailand and India. Thailand and India’s biggest drawback is geography. Also recent events, Thailand’s inability to keep a government in place and the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai, have helped Mexico capture close to half of this growth industry. In Mexico today there are over 56 world class hospitals being built to keep up with this business.

Mexico is currently sitting on a cash surplus and an almost balanced budget. Most Americans have never heard of Carlos Slim until he loaned the New York Times $250 million. After that it became clear to many investors around the world what Mexicans already knew: that Mexico had been able to avoid the worst of the U.S. economic devastation. Mexico’s resilience is to be admired. When the U.S. Federal Reserve granted a $30 billion loan to each of Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, and Brazil, Mexico reinvested the money in Treasury bonds in an account in New York City.

According to oil traders, Mexico’s Pemex wisely as the price of oil shot to $147 a barrel put in place an investment strategy that hinged on oil trading in the range of $38-$60 a barrel. Since the beginning of 2009 Mexico has been collecting revenues on hedged positions that give them $90-$110 per barrel today. Mexico’s recent and under reported oil discovery in the Palaeo Channels of Chicontepec has placed it third in the world for oil reserves, right behind Canada and Saudi Arabia.

The following is a quote from Rosalind Wilson, President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce on March 19, 2009. “The strength of the Mexican economic system makes the country a favorite destination for Canadian investment”.

OPPORTUNITIES: WHY PUERTO VALLARTA & THE RIVIERA NAYARIT

The answer is simple and old fashioned: SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

The area of Puerto Vallarta/Riviera Nayarit inside the Bay of Banderas is an investor’s dream. This area has the comprehensive infrastructure in place, world class hospitals and dental care, natural investment protection from the Sierra Madre Mountains, endless future water supply, low to nonexistent crime, international airport, and limited supply inside the Bay, first class private bilingual schools and higher than average appreciation potential. Like many areas in Mexico there is large demand for full and part time retirement living and a lot of construction underway to meet this demand. Pre construction of course is where the best bargains are available.

I would offer a word of caution for investors in Mexico. Do not be seduced by the endless natural beauty that is everywhere, both inland in colonial towns and along thousands of miles of beach. Apply conservative medium and long term investment strategies without emotion. The demand for full and part time living by American and Canadian Baby Boomers is evident throughout the country. The top two choice locations are ocean front, and ocean view. The third overall choice, which is less expensive, is inland in one of the many beautiful colonial towns or small cities.

Mexico, with the world’s 13th largest GDP, is no longer a “Third World Country”, but rather a fast growing, economically secure state, as the most recent five-year history of its financial markets when compared to the U.S.A.’s financial markets suggests.

DOW JONES AVERAGES MAY 2004 10,200 – MAY 2009 8,200 20% LOSS IN 5 YEARS

MEXICAN BOLSA MAY 2004 10,000 – MAY 2009 23,000 130% GAIN IN 5 YEARS

–I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions and a few wires and pins.

–Yo mismo estoy hecho completamente de defectos, cosidos entre sí con buenas intenciones y unos alambres y clavijas.

–
Bob Miller

Robert P. Miller, PhD
535 Westfield Rd, Suite 100
Charlottesville, VA 22901

On Friday was the beautiful and inspiring Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. This was a wonderful event watched around the world which brought hope to many for a better tomorrow.

Saturday a dear and treasured friend left to return to Canada after a splendid and eventful 5 month visit and she will be sorely missed.

Sunday there was an unheard of and rare occurrence when at 9:00 pm in the evening President Barack Obama called a news conference in the East Wing of the White House and the speculation ran rampant as the announcement was delayed over an hour.

When he finally did enter the briefing room it was to announce to the world that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in a covert Navy Seal operation in Abbottabad 80 miles north of the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. No US troops were harmed and care was taken to protect civilians. The entire operation took about 40 minutes. President Obama also credited the Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, with assisting the US in locating Osama Bin Laden and, indeed, carrying out the mission which took Bin Laden out of a mansion and not in the tribal mountainous areas as previously suspected.

We now have DNA proof that it was Osama Bin Laden that had been killed and President Obama said that “Justice has been done”.

CNN’s National Security Analyst, Peter Bergen, who interviewed Bin Laden in 1997 went as far as to say that the war on terrorism was over as no one could ever match the stature and charisma of Osama Bin Laden. When recruits are sworn in they swear their allegiance to Osama Bin Laden personally and now the biggest symbol of terrorism is dead.

Naturally, there is speculation that there will be backlashes by Bin Laden loyalists and the entire intelligence community is on high alert. We will see what transpires in the weeks and months ahead.

There is, however, a sense that the world is a better place without this man in it and hope and optimism abound around the world in every race.

It is into this purer and brighter world full of hope that this morning at 1:03 am our grandson, Ethan Alexander Valencia Buhrman, was born to our daughter, Tiffany. We wish Tiffany and her husband, Oscar Valencia, and their new son, Ethan, all the happiness in the world.

Hopefully, Bin Laden will not become a martyr as it has been almost ten years since 9/11 and he was virtually living in luxury and I think every thinking person welcomes the prospect of peace at last.

First: A reality check on Mexico

Mexico is in a unique position to reap many of the benefits of the decline of the US economy. In order to not violate NAFTA and other agreements the U.S.A. cannot use direct protectionism, so it is content to allow the media to play this protectionist role. The U.S. media – over the last year – has portrayed Mexico as being on the brink of economic collapse and civil war. The Mexican people are either beheaded, kidnapped, poor, corrupt, or narco-traffickers. The American news media was particularly aggressive in the weeks leading up to spring break. The main reason for this is money. During that two-week period, over 120,000 young American citizens poured into Mexico and left behind hundreds of millions of dollars.

Let’s look at the reality of the massive drug and corruption problem, kidnappings, murders and money. The U.S. Secretary of State Clinton was clear in her honest assessment of the problem. “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent the weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians,” Clinton said. The other large illegal business that is smuggled into the U.S.A. that no one likes to talk about is Human Traffic for prostitution. This “business” is globally now competing with drugs in terms of profits.

It is critical to understand, however that the horrific violence in Mexico is over 95% confined to the three transshipping cities for these two businesses, Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales. The Mexican government is so serious about fighting this, that they have committed over 30,000 soldiers to these borders towns. There was a thoughtful article written by a professor at the University of Juarez. He was reminded of the Prohibition years in the U.S.A. and compared Juarez to Chicago when Al Capone was conducting his reign of terror capped off with The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. During these years, just like Juarez today, 99% of the citizens went about their daily lives and attended classes, went to the movies, restaurants, and parks.

Is there corruption in Mexico? YES !!! Is there an equal amount of corruption related to this business in the U.S.A.? YES !!!. When you have a pair of illegal businesses that generate over $300,000,000,000 in sales you will find massive corruption. Make no mistake about the Mexican Drug Cartel; these “businessmen” are 100 times more sophisticated than the bumbling bootleggers during Prohibition. They form profitable alliances all over the U.S.A. They do cost benefit analysis of their business much better than the US automobile industry. They have found over the years that the cost of bribing U.S. and Mexican Border Guards and the transportation costs of moving marijuana from Sinaloa to California have cut significantly into profits. That is why over the past 5-7 years they have been growing marijuana in State and Federal Parks and BLM land all across America. From a business standpoint, this is a tremendous cost savings on several levels. Let’s look at California as an example as one of the largest consumers. When you have $14.2 billion of Marijuana grown and consumed in one state, there is savings on transportation, less loss of product due to confiscation and an overall reduction cost of bribery with law enforcement and parks service people. Another great savings is the benefit to their employees. The penalties in Mexico for growing range from 5-15 years. The penalties in California, on average are 18 months, and out in 8 months. The same economic principles are now being applied to the methamphetamine factories.

FOX News continues to scare people with its focus on kidnapping. There are kidnappings in Mexico. The concentration of kidnappings has been in Mexico City, among the very rich and the three aforementioned border Cities. With the exception of Mexico City, the number one city for kidnappings among NAFTA countries is Phoenix, Arizona with over 359 in 2008. The Phoenix Police estimate that twice that number of kidnappings goes unreported, because like Mexico 99% of these crimes were directly related to drug and human traffic. Phoenix, unfortunately, is geographically profitable transshipping location. Mexicans, just like 99% of U.S. Citizens during prohibition, go about their daily lives all over the country. They get up, go to school or work and live their lives untouched by the border town violence.

These same protectionist news sources have misled the public as to the real danger from the swine flu in Mexico and temporary devastated the tourism business. As of May 27 2009 there have been 87 deaths in Mexico from the swine flu. During those same five months there have been 36 murdered school children in Chicago. By their logic, if 87 deaths from the swine flu in Mexico warrants canceling flights and cruise ships to Mexico, then close all roads and highways in the USA because of record 43,359 automobile related deaths in the USA in 2008.

What is just getting underway is what many are calling the “Largest southern migration to Mexico of people and real estate assets since the Civil War” A significant percentage of the Baby Boomers have been doing the research and are making the life changing decision to move out of the U.S.A. The number one retirement destination in the world is Mexico. There are already over 2,000,000 US and Canadian property owners in Mexico. The most conservative number of American and Canadian Baby Boomers who are on their way to owning property in Mexico for full or part time living in the next 15 years is over 6,000,000. Do the math on 6,000,000 people buying a $300,000 house or condo and you will understand why the U.S. Government is trying to tax this massive shift of money to Mexico through H.R. 3056. The U.S. government calls this “The Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007″. Those who will have to pay it are calling this the EXIT TAX.

Mexico: A better economic choice than China

Another large exodus from the U.S.A is high paying skilled jobs. The job shift in automobile sector, both car and parts manufacturing, is already known by most investors. In the last few months as John Deere and Caterpillar have been laying off thousands of workers in the U.S.A., and hiring equal numbers in Mexico. The most recent industry that is making the shift is the aerospace manufacturers. In the city of Zacatecas there is currently a $210 million aerospace facility being built. With the 11 U.S. companies moving there, it is estimated to provide over 200,000 new high paying jobs in the coming years. One of the main factors for the shift in job south to Mexico instead of China is realistic analysis of total production, labor and delivery costs. While the labor costs in China are 40% less on average, the overall transportation costs and inherent risks of a long distance supply chain, and quality control issues, gives Mexico a distinct financial advantage.

Mexico’s real economic future

Mexico has avoided completely the subprime problem that has devastated the U.S. banking industry. The Mexican banks are healthy and profitable. Mexico has a growing and very healthy middle and upper middle class. The very recent introduction of residential financing has Mexico in a unique position of having over 90% of current homeowners owning their house outright. U.S. banks are competing for the Mexican, Canadian and American cross border loan business. It is and will continue to be a very safe and very profitable business. These same banks that were loaning in a reckless manner have learned their lesson and are loaning here the old fashioned way. They require a minimum of a 680 credit score, 30% down payment, and verifiable income that can support the loan. In most areas of Mexico where Baby Boomers are moving to, with the exception of Puerto Penasco (which did not have a national and international base of buyers), there is no real estate bubble.. The higher end markets ($2-20 million) in many of these destinations are going through a modest correction. The Baby Boomers market here is between $200,000 and $600,000. With the continuing demand inside the Bay of Banderas, that price point, in the coming years, will disappear. This is the reason the Mexican government is spending billions of dollars on more infrastructure north along the coast all the way up to Mazatlan.

The other major area where America has become overpriced is in the field of health care. This massive shift of revenues is estimated to add 5-7% to Mexico’s GDP. The name for this “business” is Medical Tourism. The two biggest competitors for Mexico were Thailand and India. Thailand and India’s biggest drawback is geography. Also recent events, Thailand’s inability to keep a government in place and the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai, have helped Mexico capture close to half of this growth industry. In Mexico today there are over 56 world class hospitals being built to keep up with this business.

Mexico is currently sitting on a cash surplus and an almost balanced budget. Most Americans have never heard of Carlos Slim until he loaned the New York Times $250 million. After that it became clear to many investors around the world what Mexicans already knew: that Mexico had been able to avoid the worst of the U.S. economic devastation. Mexico’s resilience is to be admired. When the U.S. Federal Reserve granted a $30 billion loan to each of Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, and Brazil, Mexico reinvested the money in Treasury bonds in an account in New York City.

According to oil traders, Mexico’s Pemex wisely as the price of oil shot to $147 a barrel put in place an investment strategy that hinged on oil trading in the range of $38-$60 a barrel. Since the beginning of 2009 Mexico has been collecting revenues on hedged positions that give them $90-$110 per barrel today. Mexico’s recent and under reported oil discovery in the Palaeo Channels of Chicontepec has placed it third in the world for oil reserves, right behind Canada and Saudi Arabia.

The following is a quote from Rosalind Wilson, President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce on March 19, 2009. “The strength of the Mexican economic system makes the country a favorite destination for Canadian investment”.

OPPORTUNITIES: WHY PUERTO VALLARTA & THE RIVIERA NAYARIT

The answer is simple and old fashioned: SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

The area of Puerto Vallarta/Riviera Nayarit inside the Bay of Banderas is an investor’s dream. This area has the comprehensive infrastructure in place, world class hospitals and dental care, natural investment protection from the Sierra Madre Mountains, endless future water supply, low to nonexistent crime, international airport, and limited supply inside the Bay, first class private bilingual schools and higher than average appreciation potential. Like many areas in Mexico there is large demand for full and part time retirement living and a lot of construction underway to meet this demand. Pre construction of course is where the best bargains are available.

I would offer a word of caution for investors in Mexico. Do not be seduced by the endless natural beauty that is everywhere, both inland in colonial towns and along thousands of miles of beach. Apply conservative medium and long term investment strategies without emotion. The demand for full and part time living by American and Canadian Baby Boomers is evident throughout the country. The top two choice locations are ocean front, and ocean view. The third overall choice, which is less expensive, is inland in one of the many beautiful colonial towns or small cities.

Mexico, with the world’s 13th largest GDP, is no longer a “Third World Country”, but rather a fast growing, economically secure state, as the most recent five-year history of its financial markets when compared to the U.S.A.’s financial markets suggests.

DOW JONES AVERAGES MAY 2004 10,200 – MAY 2009 8,200 20% LOSS IN 5 YEARS

MEXICAN BOLSA MAY 2004 10,000 – MAY 2009 23,000 130% GAIN IN 5 YEARS

“Why are you moving to Mexico? It is very dangerous there!” We constantly hear uninformed rhetoric gleaned from cable news and talk radio about the murder rate, the kidnapping rate and the “disappearance” rate, etcetera, etcetera. We hear about the dangers of SCUBA diving, shark attacks and even heat exhaustion. American’s need to wake up to the realization that FEAR is an industry in the United States and we are rabid consumers of it. We are not saying you shouldn’t be cautious but some perspective needs to be applied.

In 2002 tens of thousands of people in the United States swore off airplanes and began driving cars on vacation because they were afraid of being killed by terrorists. This despite the fact that in a typical year there are more than 40,000 people killed in vehicular accidents in the US. In other words, assuming the trend continued (which it didn’t) the odds of being killed by a terrorist in 2002 would have been one in 9 million. In that same year the odds of dying in a traffic accident were about one in 7,000.

To put it a different way, probably more people were killed in 2002 not by terrorism but by fear of terrorism. Given that, how many people do your hear about that are afraid of car travel? How many people do you hear clamoring for the government to mandate safer cars? – How many people fear terrorism? How many people do you hear clamoring for the government to do something about “those people”?

With this in mind, let’s look at some numbers and how they apply to Mexico. Between 2004 and 2009 approximately 40 American’s per year died in Mexico of “unnatural causes”. That out of an average of 17.6 million American visits a year. Most of these deaths took place along the border and many were people that, let’s just say, were doing something they shouldn’t have been and many of the deaths were not even crime related. It is however pretty scary if you make an active effort not to think about it too hard. But let’s do something many think crazy and actually critically examine the numbers. (the following are approximate)

450,000 American’s die each year of heart disease but given those numbers how many people fear that enough to cut back on fast food and start exercising?
14,900 American’s die each year from falls.
8,600 American’s each year are poisoned.
3,300 American’s die each year from choking but how many American’s reduce the amount of things they put in their mouths from fear of that?
1,500 American’s die each year from firearms.
14,406 die each year of alcoholic liver disease
45,000 American’s die in each year in the United States — one every 12 minutes — in large part because they lack health insurance and cannot get good care.

From accidents with machinery the number is 350, medical complications 500, poisoning by gas 700, drowning 4,000 it goes on and on. Where are the headlines? Where is the outrage? Where is the finger pointing and the blame? It isn’t always easy to find or stand up to the boogey man in these cases so it just goes unreported, ignored or denied.

Given these numbers, the way we figure it, it would be in much more dangerous for us if we were to sit around growing fat butts in an easy chair, drinking beer, watching cable news and cleaning guns than it is getting up and moving to Mexico.

In recent months the debate about violence in Mexico has heated up significantly. Most news channels have been giving a broad coverage on the facts of crime, which are usually focused on the issue of combating organized crime.

When it comes to human lifes, it is always difficult to speak coldly about figures. But when we need to know what really is going on, in terms of crime, we can do nothing but refer to them.

The indicator which measures the violence in a country is the number of violent deaths per 100,000 people. This indicator has the advantage of allowing us to compare figures between countries with different population sizes.

This indicator is highly reliable and comparable between countries of the world, since in all countries it is necessary to produce death certificates to account for a death caused for any reason whatsoever. In the case of violent deaths, there is no possibility that this indicator, unlike others, observe significant levels of sub report because violent deaths are registred by law in all countries.

According the available indicators, Mexico as a country has a general level of 13.3 violent deaths per 100.00 inhabitants, making it one of the safest countries in Latin America. Levels in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela surprised us since they are at high as 16.8, 36.7 and 44.9 deaths per 100,000 population, respectively. Brazil and Venezuela are two and almost three times more violent than Mexico, respectively.

Moreover, if we compare this indicator with some U.S. cities we will see that our country is much better than we would expect to imagine. Comparing Mexico to Washington DC, New Orleans or Detroit the difference is very big, violence is a tangible problem in those cities. And without going too far, Mexico City has 9.8 violent deaths per 100,000 people, far below of other major cities like Houston, with 12.5, Phoenix, witn 12.6, and Los Angeles, with 17.1. It is true that there is a big problem in Ciudad Juarez and three other municipalities, which altogether sum up to more than 50% of violent deaths in Mexico. The rest of the 2,396 municipalities which form the country have relatively low violence levels.

According to figures provided by the government of Mexico, the battle against organized crime has caused 24,826 violent deaths in the last four years. As it is continuosly said, inside and outside the country, it has turned Mexico in an extremely dangerous country to live. A country that sadly some have said is in “civil war” and that is a “failed state.” This is definitely not true.

Although a number like 24,826 seems pretty high, it is time to put it in context. This number represents a little over 6,000 deaths per year on average. Each year, 20,000 people die in Mexico in road accidents and more than 50,000 because of diabetes. If we look at violent deaths to compare, in the U.S. 6,000 veterans commit suicide every year. So, during the same period, the same amount of persons have died as a consecuence of the U.S. post-war trauma, as the war on drugs in Mexico.

And while there is some exposure about this phenomenon in the U.S. media, it does not reach the same exposure as in Mexico. Here we are in a frenzy of daily information that the only thing it communicates is the presence of violence. Our conversations with family, friends, office, restaurants, are all about violence. We enrol ourselves and enrol others, including foreigners, in the idea that violence in Mexicohas reached unsuspected levels. And there’s no evidence to support that. It is only our perception. We find ourselves filtering and searching all events and news, looking for those that speak of violence. And likewise, those are the news we speak about. It is a conversation, just a conversation.

This has affected the levels of tourism, investment and economic prospects for the country, and it is not supported by real figures, data and facts, it is only a perception. The good news is that we have the power to change that perception. It just takes to take a look at the data and facts.

Ultimately, the best way to combat any violence is to leave the fear that is generating this behind and doing something that makes us confident. Enrol ourselves and enrol others with the fact that violence stops us, it paralyzes us. What would be possible if we focus on facts anda data to make us and others see that we can be responsible for creating an environment to grow and prosper instead of creating a violent space with our everyday conversations? You have this power, do it for north America and in the end you will be doing something positive for yourself and for others

Crown Casino Ajijic, Lake Chapala, Mexico

A press release from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) said the investigators confiscated equipment and materials from the betting parlor and also took 16 employees and 9 clients to the PGR headquarters in Guadalajara for questioning in regards to probable violations of the General Law on Games and Raffles.

Allegedly the business was opened without proper permits from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Gobernacion).

The detainees were held in custody for about 17 hours before being released on bonds posted by the casino’s operators.

Evidently, agents allowed a number of foreign clients to freely leave the casino to avoid the possibility of violating their individual rights.

Included in the evidence collected by authorities were 65 electronic betting machines, 23 packages containing 3,298 magnetic cards used for playing the machines and 57,533 pesos in cash found in the till, as well as an unspecified number of gaming tables, playing cards, chips and plasma screens.

Before terminating the operation, agents put seals across the front and back entrances of the casino reinforcing the closure by welding several iron bars across each door.

Local police, who were called in at the last minute to provide back up for the raid, have maintained regular surveillance in the area during this week.

The Chapala government’s Secretary General, Jose Gonzalez Alfaro, said that the Crown Casino was issued two separate business licenses by the previous administration, one authorizing the operation of a restaurant-bar and the other one for installing low-cost electronic games known as tragemonedas (coin swallowers).

Former city councilwoman Rocio Reynoso, admitted that the permits were extended without being run through a special council that oversees issuance of licenses for restricted enterprises, such as those that dispense alcoholic beverages.

Jose Gonzalez Alfaro said that the casino would not have its licenses renewed without the proof of proper authorization from Gobernacion from the current government.

This raid was perhaps a little zealous. Had you ever been in this casino one might have thought that on site questioning of the clients would certainly have sufficed.