Pertinent point, which still made me smile to read! Keep it in Las Vegas, or the US please. The rest of us are tired of walking on eggshells around US elections... Sadly!
lol - yes, U.S. happenings hold too much global mindshare (or media). I'm exacerbating that problem. Still, Mexico is the United States' biggest trading partner, and the top destination for U.S. tourists and expats (and vice-versa) - so all these dumb U.S. happenings are, unfortunately, highly relevant to Mexico's economic and social scene.
Governments interact with one another in a state of unrestrained anarchy. They trade and talk, they threaten and negotiate, and when things don’t go their way, they make war.
Because of self-interest and a common border, the USA and Mexico have worked things out since the Mexican-American war.
Tariffs are a fool’s errand, but a gambit in negotiation.
Don’t worry, be happy. That’s why I moved to Mexico!
Democracy don’t rule the world, you gotta get that through your head. This world is ruled by violence, but I guess that’s better left unsaid. -Dylan. We all heard about the terrible Indians and how they scalped their victims, but Blood Meridian makes clear the violence was on both sides. A little too clear at times.
Did Sheinbaum quietly beat Trump to the punch with the rise in the tourist tax (including cruise ships!), from $35 to $42?? If 2023 tourists numbers remain the same it's approximately $265 million us. Small sum on the nation level, but part of the chess game. There will be pain no doubt, but I'm cautiously optomistic that Sheinbaum and Trudeau and company are clever enough to stay a step ahead on some of this. From my foggy observations, the belt continues to tighten here in Puerto Vallarta with foreign property owners as it relates to residency applications, tax payments and other fees etc. Little things matter too.
That Sheinbaum is more clever than Trump is unquestionably true! Most animate objects are, so it's not really a high bar. I'm guessing Mexico would have raised those cruise ship fees regardless - the fed needs money, and they have to find it somewhere. I have no idea what cruises cost the consumer, but it seems like that rise in fees is a trifle of the total sum; it kind of makes sense to me. Is Mexico also raising the fees for residency applications and taxes that foreign property owners pay?
Trumps only "smarts" I'll acknowledgee are his robot like instincts of self-promotion (see: fist in the air and mouthing "fight" after that bullet hit his ear). It's the people working on his team that concern me in regards to the chess match. Plenty of them are smart as a bag of rocks too, but I think a few are legitimately smart and diabolical.
I don't have a concrete answer to your question on fees for residency. I'm 2 years into a 4 year residency. I'm anxious about what it will look like when we go to pay for our permanent in a couple years. I think the general good business sense of Mexicans will prevail, i.e keep me spending my dollars in Mexcio, but who knows with the leadership my citizen country has fully put into power, and the retalitation that may will require. We have a fedicomiso (for your readers who do not know, yearly $500 us fee that renews every 50 years. A bank trust between my property and the mexican government managed by a mexican bank. We own our builsding but not the ground it sits on. We have all the rights of a Mexican citizen to sell at market value or give as inheritance to family or freind. These are required of foreigners purchasing property within 50km of an ocean or 150 km of a border. I'm generally comfortable with the fedicomiso, but it's one more level of protection the Mexican government has wisely put in place to remove barriers that open the possiblity to tell us to "go home", by not renewing and I suspect even siezing the land if they decide that's needed. I'm not sure about that last statement, and I consider it a slim possibility that a worst case happens, but Trump and Co. leave me floating upside down on this and so many things.
Our property tax went up by 53% this year, but I would assume that is across the board, at least in our colonia. I wouldn't claim any knowledge other than assume it went up for everybody. One thing I see happening in Vallarta/Jalisco over the last few years is a tightening on regulations in general, requirements such as; required formation of civil associations to manage our condo building, fees and re-inspections for electrical certification from CFE in order to open a bank account under our civil association name, all owners not nationals listed on civil association required to be legal residents, enforcement of airbnb/business taxes. Resonable and I am proud of the municiplaity, state and federal government for moving this way.
X was flooded by both nationalist remarks and let’s-get-real remarks (port fees are essentially universal) and the aftermath is the fees have been suspended.
Beinvenidos first! And second, Mike, it is definitely NOT crap! What it is, as you so rightly point out, is one sad state of affairs for pretty much everyone b/c we're all so connected through trade. I think the tariffs will hurt everyone, everywhere. Just have to--absurd percentages added onto everything--coming and going. And regarding deportation madness, the #s are too big to even attempt to make it doable--the chaos, the costs, building housing, paying employees to watch over the detainees ready to be deportees-- will probably bankrupt the nation. And will also leave an ungodly amount of work not being done b/c gringos won't deign to work in the fields, nor in meat slaughterhouses, etc. Let's face it, every other 'company' he ran went bankrupt. Now he gets to play that game with a whole country! A businessman he is not--now a con man? Yup.
Thanks Jeanine. And good point about the orange-haired man's infatuation with bankruptcy. Perhaps this is just his logical end-game - bankrupting an entire nation while skimming whatever profits he can in the process.
I have not read it either - sounds like it is some sort of treatise on how democracy is being controlled by media and other influencers. Let me know when you've read it - I'll ask you for the Cliff's notes.
Pertinent point, which still made me smile to read! Keep it in Las Vegas, or the US please. The rest of us are tired of walking on eggshells around US elections... Sadly!
lol - yes, U.S. happenings hold too much global mindshare (or media). I'm exacerbating that problem. Still, Mexico is the United States' biggest trading partner, and the top destination for U.S. tourists and expats (and vice-versa) - so all these dumb U.S. happenings are, unfortunately, highly relevant to Mexico's economic and social scene.
But I get your point - it's exhausting!
Governments interact with one another in a state of unrestrained anarchy. They trade and talk, they threaten and negotiate, and when things don’t go their way, they make war.
Because of self-interest and a common border, the USA and Mexico have worked things out since the Mexican-American war.
Tariffs are a fool’s errand, but a gambit in negotiation.
Don’t worry, be happy. That’s why I moved to Mexico!
We need to keep an eye on it, agreed!
Welcome back, Mike. Cormac McCarthy, the author of the book that No Country for Old Men was based on, is one of my favorites. Love his Border Trilogy.
Thanks Brian! Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorites too. Loved the Border Trilogy too. And Blood Meridian was just over the top.
Democracy don’t rule the world, you gotta get that through your head. This world is ruled by violence, but I guess that’s better left unsaid. -Dylan. We all heard about the terrible Indians and how they scalped their victims, but Blood Meridian makes clear the violence was on both sides. A little too clear at times.
Claro.
Did Sheinbaum quietly beat Trump to the punch with the rise in the tourist tax (including cruise ships!), from $35 to $42?? If 2023 tourists numbers remain the same it's approximately $265 million us. Small sum on the nation level, but part of the chess game. There will be pain no doubt, but I'm cautiously optomistic that Sheinbaum and Trudeau and company are clever enough to stay a step ahead on some of this. From my foggy observations, the belt continues to tighten here in Puerto Vallarta with foreign property owners as it relates to residency applications, tax payments and other fees etc. Little things matter too.
That Sheinbaum is more clever than Trump is unquestionably true! Most animate objects are, so it's not really a high bar. I'm guessing Mexico would have raised those cruise ship fees regardless - the fed needs money, and they have to find it somewhere. I have no idea what cruises cost the consumer, but it seems like that rise in fees is a trifle of the total sum; it kind of makes sense to me. Is Mexico also raising the fees for residency applications and taxes that foreign property owners pay?
Trumps only "smarts" I'll acknowledgee are his robot like instincts of self-promotion (see: fist in the air and mouthing "fight" after that bullet hit his ear). It's the people working on his team that concern me in regards to the chess match. Plenty of them are smart as a bag of rocks too, but I think a few are legitimately smart and diabolical.
I don't have a concrete answer to your question on fees for residency. I'm 2 years into a 4 year residency. I'm anxious about what it will look like when we go to pay for our permanent in a couple years. I think the general good business sense of Mexicans will prevail, i.e keep me spending my dollars in Mexcio, but who knows with the leadership my citizen country has fully put into power, and the retalitation that may will require. We have a fedicomiso (for your readers who do not know, yearly $500 us fee that renews every 50 years. A bank trust between my property and the mexican government managed by a mexican bank. We own our builsding but not the ground it sits on. We have all the rights of a Mexican citizen to sell at market value or give as inheritance to family or freind. These are required of foreigners purchasing property within 50km of an ocean or 150 km of a border. I'm generally comfortable with the fedicomiso, but it's one more level of protection the Mexican government has wisely put in place to remove barriers that open the possiblity to tell us to "go home", by not renewing and I suspect even siezing the land if they decide that's needed. I'm not sure about that last statement, and I consider it a slim possibility that a worst case happens, but Trump and Co. leave me floating upside down on this and so many things.
Our property tax went up by 53% this year, but I would assume that is across the board, at least in our colonia. I wouldn't claim any knowledge other than assume it went up for everybody. One thing I see happening in Vallarta/Jalisco over the last few years is a tightening on regulations in general, requirements such as; required formation of civil associations to manage our condo building, fees and re-inspections for electrical certification from CFE in order to open a bank account under our civil association name, all owners not nationals listed on civil association required to be legal residents, enforcement of airbnb/business taxes. Resonable and I am proud of the municiplaity, state and federal government for moving this way.
X was flooded by both nationalist remarks and let’s-get-real remarks (port fees are essentially universal) and the aftermath is the fees have been suspended.
Beinvenidos first! And second, Mike, it is definitely NOT crap! What it is, as you so rightly point out, is one sad state of affairs for pretty much everyone b/c we're all so connected through trade. I think the tariffs will hurt everyone, everywhere. Just have to--absurd percentages added onto everything--coming and going. And regarding deportation madness, the #s are too big to even attempt to make it doable--the chaos, the costs, building housing, paying employees to watch over the detainees ready to be deportees-- will probably bankrupt the nation. And will also leave an ungodly amount of work not being done b/c gringos won't deign to work in the fields, nor in meat slaughterhouses, etc. Let's face it, every other 'company' he ran went bankrupt. Now he gets to play that game with a whole country! A businessman he is not--now a con man? Yup.
Thanks Jeanine. And good point about the orange-haired man's infatuation with bankruptcy. Perhaps this is just his logical end-game - bankrupting an entire nation while skimming whatever profits he can in the process.
Here, here, I'm from here!!
I'm Australian, mate!
Though I have not fully read it, I have heard this is a good analysis: https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/52/526D2E781AC9EBBB13346BDF7693E1BB_CHOMSKY_Noam_-_Necessary_Illusions.pdf
I have not read it either - sounds like it is some sort of treatise on how democracy is being controlled by media and other influencers. Let me know when you've read it - I'll ask you for the Cliff's notes.
You just said it all!
Thanks, I said some of it at least 😆
well said!!!
Thank you, Josey!
Hey handsome friend
Hi Jesica - you give me too much credit😆