Is It Time to Leave?

Life in Mexico City [The Daily Reckoning] January 02, 2023 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Is It Time to Leave? - GDP and wealth aren’t necessarily the same thing… - The only real business expansion taking place in the U.S. now… - The cultural revolution in America and its fallout… [REVEALED: My Secret Weapon]( He’s a former hedge fund manager… With a loyal following of more than 100,000 American investors… Plus, he’s helped my readers close one winning trade after another, with gain like: - A 128% in 28 days… - A 174% in 11 days… - A 203% in 26 days… So… How are gains like these possible in today’s crazy market? How does this strategy work? And how can you get ready…before the next buy alert? [Get The Answer Here]( Mexico City, Mexico January 2, 2023 Editor’s note: We at The Daily Reckoning would like to wish you a belated Happy New Year. We hope it is a swell one for you. In this first issue of 2023, Jeffrey Tucker compares life in the U.S. to what he experienced in Mexico City. Are living conditions in the U.S. really better? [Jeffrey Tucker] JEFFREY TUCKER Dear Reader , Being in Mexico City, away from the hullabaloo of the U.S. right now, is a welcome relief for me. It’s strange because Mexico is pretty low on the list of nations by GDP per capita. And yet there is a richness here, even in material things, that one cannot seem to find in the U.S. The household appliances work because “energy efficiency” is not imposed from the top which wrecks their functioning. The lighting in homes and office places is gentle and feels like the old world. The building materials are stone, plaster, and brick, not plywood and drywall. Ovens and stoves are fueled by gas. Toilets actually work. The hot water is actually hot. The white sheets and clothing here are bright and crunchy because they are so clean. Clothes dryers here must actually work. The beef is grass fed and the chicken actually tastes like something. The street food here is healthier than most chain restaurants in the U.S. The eggs are delicious. Even the ketchup is healthy, made with lots of vinegar and no corn syrup. The portions are large, and overall I’ve been able to dine for about one third of what I would pay in the U.S. What a Difference The sheer number of small businesses is astounding to see. I’ve walked for miles throughout the city and rarely see any huge stores. They are small and hospitality is nearly absent in the U.S. The whole city has a floral smell to it, fresh and pretty, unlike New York, which smells like trash, sewage, and pot. Coming here for a week, before I left people kept telling me to be safe and watch out for rampant crime. I’ve not felt unsafe for one minute, unlike in New York, Chicago, or Atlanta. I have no idea what Americans are talking about when they go on about rumors of crime in Mexico. Have they looked around at their own cities? Sadly, most Americans haven’t left the country in three years, even those who used to travel often. The lockdowns impose a parochialism on people, both physically and psychologically. The traumatic experience has shrunk people’s imagination and narrowed their worldview. It has made the country less modern and less civilized. And by the way, Mexico City today is filled with many young Americans in their 30s who have fled the U.S. They bring to the neighborhood where I’m staying a kind of innocent hipster vibe. They work the shops and enjoy the perfect weather and leisurely lifestyle. I totally get it. If I were 30 years old and had a job I could do remotely, and no immediate family limitations, I would pick up and move here too. It’s a blessed relief. [Urgent Note From Jim Rickards: “You’re Running Out Of Time!”]( [Click here for more...]( Your exclusive “Pro level” upgrade to Strategic Intelligence is ready to be claimed. This is your chance to claim 3 exciting new benefits along with a whole new level of service. Hurry… you only have until the timer hits 0 to act… [Click Here To Act Now]( How Bad Can the U.S. Get? Being away from the mess has got me thinking about just how bad it can get in the U.S., starting with the economy. Interest rates absolutely must keep rising to control inflation, which is far worse than the White House lets on. It is deeply embedded and shows no signs of relenting to a manageable level. That means that the Fed will have to continue to raise rates. Right now, the federal funds rate at 4.25%-4.50% is not high enough to outpace inflation and drives rates to a real positive return. They need to be 6-7% or higher, which is going to push 5, 10, and 30-year rates to levels never seen before. Here’s the core problem: for a full decade and a half, we’ve lived through the great distortion. Vast amounts of industries and economic structures have grown up around this unreal world in which there is a negative return on old-fashioned savings and only high returns on the most speculative right side of the yield curve. Reversing that policy now — which the Fed has to do to stop a complete meltdown — could create upheaval not just in housing but also essentially every sector that has grown up in the midst of this fake policy. Retail sales are down and falling in the midst of the 20th month of declines in real income. Housing starts are collapsing, and sales are dropping like a stone. Rents will soon follow due to the glut of housing out there. Airbnb owners are noting the drying up of business. The only real business expansion taking place in the U.S. now: Dollar Stores. That should tell you all you need to know. We already know what it means to experience an inflationary recession. Imagine inflationary depression and worse, alongside a genuine fiscal crisis in government. Imagine a financial market with no safety anywhere in sight. All public companies are losing valuation. There is safety only in U.S.-backed bonds but even here, there is some question about the creditworthiness of the U.S. government itself. The Fed absolutely cannot risk another quantitative easing for fear of unleashing hyperinflation. How does one survive in such an environment? The options are few. Time to Get Out? After being in Mexico just a few days, I’m really rethinking this idea of what it means to be rich. The United States has the highest GDP of any country in the world, but where are the manners, the work ethic, the hospitality, the normal human concern for others? The last three years in the United States seem to have wrecked the culture in many ways. It’s not just lockdowns and masking, but also woke ideology that has everyone questioning everything about religion, country, tradition, and even basic gender distinctions. It has nearly criminalized the recent past. There is no presence of any of this in Mexico. As for technology, yes, Mexico is “behind” so that cell reception comes with 3G, but somehow even that charmed me. The internet in my $50 per night huge hotel room — with a living room and a bedroom balcony with glass and iron doors that overlooks the city — is faster than what I get in the United States. It’s true that I can look outside my window and see clotheslines and rooftop chicken coops, but I will just be frank: this stuff looks refreshingly honest to me. True blue. Air-dried clothes are whiter and fresh than any dryer can make them regardless. The World Bank and all fancy economists imagine that they know what it means to be rich. They count up the beans and rank the countries. The IMF is always on hand to give advice to countries on how to get richer so that they can ascend up the ranks. The idea is that everyone should be like the United States. But is that even true? What does it mean to be rich? [[CHART] Could Inflation Hit 20%+ In 2023?]( [Click here for more...]( Take a close look at this scary chart pictured here… What you see is the money supply in America… And as you can see, the number of dollars in circulation has exploded in the last few years. In fact, more than 80% of all dollars to ever exist have been printed since just 2020 alone! Which is why some say inflation could soon explode even higher than it is now, to 20% or more. And if you’re at or near retirement age you must take action now to protect yourself… otherwise you risk losing everything. See how to survive America’s deadly inflation crisis. [Click Here Now]( It’s the Culture, Stupid U.S. culture is being taken over by surveillance, hectoring, a government-controlled media, and badgering, overeducated, and under-talented managers who do nothing but tell other people what to do, plus huge class divisions that feel more medieval than modern. And this is what we want to call rich? In many ways it is miserable. The cultural revolution in America has caused generations to lose touch with basic manners and civic norms, to feel embarrassed about who we are and our own history. Not so in Mexico; it seems blessedly free of all that. This trip is beginning to make me rethink many things such as what prosperity really is. Are we really prosperous if we are not free? If we are spied on, locked down, mandatorily medicated? If our churches and businesses shut on a whim? Mexico in general never had vaccine mandates. Briefly Puerto Vallarta and Tlaxcala experimented with them and then repealed them. Pharmacies here freely sell Ivermectin and other drugs that you can only get with a prescription in the United States, if you can get them at all. Apart from ridiculous signs here and there, the country is over it, and I’m guessing vast amounts of the population look at the whole experience as nothing but Yankee imperialism, which it was. All COVID nonsense aside, my experience here has reminded me of something very important… You can say what you want to about GDP and all economic data, but there is no way to truly separate what it means to be rich from what it means to live a good life. You cannot take away the good life and point to data and tell people to be happy. The font of human happiness comes not from the World Bank and the World Health Organization. It is an affair of the heart that desires freedom. Take that away and you lose everything. Regards, Jeffrey Tucker for The Daily Reckoning [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) Editor’s note: Our customer support team has been working nonstop with new members to upgrade their accounts with Jim Rickards’ [CIA-based timing tool…]( We’ve never seen anything quite like this… and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come. We’ve been flooded with calls from Jim’s followers because they don’t want to miss out on what’s happening this week. They’re making an [exciting change to their accounts…]( A simple upgrade that will give them the information they need to trade faster, and stronger than ever before. Hundreds of Jim’s followers have already locked in this upgrade. Have you done it yet? If not, you could miss out on this upgrade once we hit our deadline. [Click here now to discover how to upgrade your account immediately.]( Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) [Jeffrey Tucker] [Jeffrey Tucker]( is an independent editorial consultant who served as Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2023 Paradigm Press, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your The Daily Reckoning e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from The Daily Reckoning, feel free to [click here.]( Please note: the mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored, so do not reply to this message. We welcome comments or suggestions at feedback@dailyreckoning.com. This address is for feedback only. For questions about your account or to speak with customer service, [contact us here]( or call (844)-731-0984. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. We allow the editors of our publications to recommend securities that they own themselves. However, our policy prohibits editors from exiting a personal trade while the recommendation to subscribers is open. In no circumstance may an editor sell a security before subscribers have a fair opportunity to exit. The length of time an editor must wait after subscribers have been advised to exit a play depends on the type of publication. All other employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of a printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended in this letter should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. The Daily Reckoning is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. Please read our [Privacy Statement.]( If you are having trouble receiving your The Daily Reckoning subscription, you can ensure its arrival in your mailbox by [whitelisting The Daily Reckoning.](