Storm Clouds on the Horizon for Expats

Oh the wonderful and carefree life of the retired expat, soaking up the sun, hanging around the pool, having sunset cocktails with your fellow expats at the clubhouse, and enjoying a lifestyle that you worked for and dreamt about for so many years. You finally made it! I am so glad for all of you who have achieved your dreams. We have to assume of course, that you are firmly established in your new and improved environment, your investments are safe, and you have a decent income from which you can withdraw anytime you want when you go to the National Bank of Parador. All those financial troubles going on in the world really do not affect you in the least, right?So Monday is the best day to go shopping in town, and off you go in your shiny SUV, shopping up a storm. On the car radio you hear some garbled foreign language news, where they kept mentioning the dollar, the airo, and the libra. Well since you are not that interested in archeology or astrology, you pushed in that Willie Nelson CD and ignored all that.After buying your weekly supplies of food and libations, you get to the checkout stand, and when your tally is finalized you hand the cashier your credit/debit card. She, in turn, flips that switch which calls the floor manager over. He inspects your card very carefully, and then drops the bomb on you: Sorry Mister, we can’t accept foreign credit cards anymore! You didn’t hear the news?Don’t bother being the obnoxious foreigner. It finally happened. The world’s banks are in utter chaos, and your card is now just a piece of plastic with which you can clean your teeth. Remember when, a few weeks ago, Greece, and then Italy, Spain, and Ireland had to leave the Euro currency? Well, it ended up affecting you after all, because after you left the supermarket empty handed, you thought that a quick visit to the National Bank of Parador, a few phone calls to Goldman Sachs in New York, and a few more calls to some of your good ol’ boy broker friends would straighten everything out. And it is about now when the gravity of the situation hits you: The people at Goldman Sachs have to follow the newly issued emergency decrees, which prohibit that transfer of U.S. dollars out of the country, and in any event, transactions over US$300 per person per week are not allowed. Your relatives cannot send you emergency cash via Western Union, the banking system as you knew it has gone into hibernation, taking with it your retirement cushion, and dam’it, you’ve run out of fuel for your gas hog on the way home. After a two hour walk, you finally get back to your home and try to call the embassy of the United States of America. After getting busy signals for hours and having blisters on your fingers from so much to speed dialing, you finally get through! ...It’s a recording: “Due to an unexpectedly high call volume, all operators are presently busy. Your expected wait time is 4 years!”There are millions of expats worldwide, not all of them U.S. citizens of course. But you may rest assured that the U.S. government will not have contingency plans to assist its citizens living abroad, who are paying taxes without having any representation. The folks at the embassy will politely tell you that if you are deceased, they will lend you the money to ship your remains home, but that is about all you can expect. U.S. diplomatic offices are generally not for individuals seeking assistance. They are there to help corporations do business in foreign countries and to spy on foreign leadership. Meanwhile, with the possibility of a financial disaster looming large, there is a country, also English speaking, that is putting into place comprehensive contingency plans to evacuate their million citizens from the Iberian Peninsula, should my aforementioned scenario unfold. And if I can come up with this, and the British Foreign office can come up with it, how screwed will you, as a U.S. expat be, when today’s Argentinean edicts about repatriating money go into effect? Your government is busy screwing you out of all they can! They don’t have time for silly citizen services. After all, you could have stayed home and gotten food stamps after your bank went belly up.Concerned Citizen of the WorldI encourage you to write to me, jamie@expatdailynews.com with any questions or suggestions you may have, and if necessary, we can establish a voice communication via Skype. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel related business. My advice is based on my own experiences, and is free of charge. (Donations accepted). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.Jamie Douglas is an Adventurer, Writer and Photographer with an amazing array of Nikon equipment, and a lifetime of experience traveling and documenting. To contact him for assignments, email: jamie.douglas [at] yahoo.com

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