Crosstown traffic

 

The Mexican flag, which a lot of Californians

will have to get used to. Just not in the way that you think...

When the American government tells you that inflation is at 8.6%, take that with a pinch of salt. The Fed has changed its measurement of inflation on an absurd amount of occasions, each one designed to fool you into feelgood, or at least not feelbad. The calibration has altered something like 30 times in 4 decades.

The inflation rate for the average American, interested in buying staples and gasoline, could be up to twice as high. And this is leading to a migration which may come as some surprise given the current crisis on the Texan border and the direction in which the immigrants are arriving in record numbers.

Californians are beginning to leave their state for - wait for it - Mexico. The main reasons being given are the rising cost of living in the US, especially in high-tax California.

Apparently undeterred that in some Mexican towns it is not impossible that you will find the head of a slain drug cartel member in your trash-can, increasing numbers of Californians are financially downscaling by moving to Mexico. This is producing a bizarre situation in which, while thousands of Mexicans are wading across the Rio Grande towards Texas, Californians are passing them on the freeway overhead heading in the opposite direction.

I have said to anyone who is prepared to listen that property where I am (Costa Rica) might be worth some investment, as a lot of gringos will be fleeing when the US inflation rate hits that of Zimbabwe, Venezuela, or The Weimar Republic.

The Biden administration can try to divert your attention from climbing prices (which are also now hitting Latin America, so it won't be the low-rent Shangri-La it used to be), but there comes a time when a family has to relocate, one of the founding traditions of the USA. Once the Fed hikes rates - an inevitability - it will hammer the housing market (as well as pricing a lot of Mexicans out of their properties, although landlords will prosper when the first wave of gringos arrives) and as increasing immigration hobbles wages in the USA, it may be better to start those Spanish lessons now.

One word of warning. If you do take the high road to Acapulco, it might be best to take some rosary beads and a Kevlar jacket.