Schiff Sovereign Podcast

As longtime readers know, I’ve been a tremendous fan of Lee’s since I was a small child. He was wise beyond his years and packed a great deal into his short life. I put one of his quotes up on our former office’s walls in Santiago. It reads: “To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” This idea is especially apt for the times we live in. It’s easy to be incredibly frustrated about the state of the world right now. The ‘experts’ in charge — whether in the media, Federal Reserve, tech companies, etc. — have led us astray and allowed devastating consequences to take root. Witness massive inflation, the conflict in Europe, the fracturing of society along ideological, medical and skin color lines, the debacle in Afghanistan… These were all engineered by the ‘experts’ in charge, and none more so than the response to Covid-1984, which brought the global economy to its knees. People traditionally placed great trust in experts. In the United States, the media once held a place of great esteem; CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite was often cited as “the most trusted man in America.” And although healthy skepticism always has existed about the government, I recall a time when people largely thought that it had their best interests at heart. I’d venture that none of this is true any longer. Trust in media, business, and especially government has dramatically eroded over the past two years. If someone is deigned to be an ‘expert’ these days, the antennae go on high alert. For example, we start today’s podcast discussion with a Tale of Two Headlines, in which we present to you side-by-side the headlines by both Bloomberg and CNBC. One says one thing, and the other the opposite, both conclusions undergirded by ‘experts.’ This gives us a great indication of the prowess of so-called experts, especially when it comes to their handling of the economy (or lack thereof). Today we also talk about where things are likely going in the economy, how we ended up here, and most importantly, how to keep a clear and rational outlook. It’s irritating and sometimes exasperating to see where the experts have led us all. But it’s important to remember that the world is not coming to an end. For anyone who has the courage and discipline to embrace it, there’s an abundance of opportunity out there. For more on this, we invite you to listen to today’s discussion, here.

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian friends. And Monday, of course, is Independence Day in the United States. It’ll be an odd one for sure. Many cities are reportedly cutting back on their fireworks displays due to… yes… supply chain shortages. And many people may scale down their traditional backyard grilling due to insanely high food price inflation. There’s undoubtedly a lot of reason for concern right now, and people of all personal philosophies across the political spectrum feel it. Those on the left are angry about recent Supreme Court decisions and concerned that they may lose other rights. Those on the right fret about cancel culture. Almost everyone is concerned about inflation… and we constantly hear the cry that ‘Democracy is under attack’. There’s a mountain of problems and no real solutions on the horizon. More importantly, it seems like intense social factions have developed. Public “debate” and civil discourse is governed by those who feel but don’t think… by people who are professionally outraged but outrageously ignorant. And it is under these odd circumstances that citizens celebrate the birth of their nations this weekend. Today I wanted to provide a little bit of historic context. There are problems, yes. But you might have a more hopeful outlook for the future after hearing more about the early days of America. Click here to listen to today’s conversation… and we wish you a safe and relaxing holiday weekend.

Today’s missive looks a bit different from our normal Friday roundup. As you probably know, a few big rulings came down from the United States Supreme Court over the past 24 hours– one on gun control, the other on abortion. Predictably, the rulings were accompanied by a great deal of noise and outrage. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that ‘mostly peaceful’ protests don’t start up again. More importantly, we wanted to weigh in with a healthy dose of rationality. My bet is that the vast majority of angry protesters have probably not bothered to read any of the Justices’ opinions. They probably never read the original Roe v Wade opinion. They probably don’t know who was Roe and who was Wade. They probably haven’t even read the Constitution. All they know is that they’re outraged. Lately we’ve been hearing a refrain over and over again that “Democracy is under attack.” Yes I agree. And this is part of what that attack looks like. A representative democracy means that elected leaders make laws, and judges determine whether or not those laws are Constitutional. The latter is the sole responsibility of the Supreme Court. The Justices examined the cases, and they made a decision about what is/isn’t Constitutional. Yet those rulings don’t conform with what the Twitter mob or mainstream media want. Instead, they expect the Justices to simply invent new laws based on their personal beliefs and opinions. That’s not how a democracy is supposed to work. A truly civilized society adheres to its democratic values, even when the system delivers an outcome that people don’t like. A democracy only survives because it remains a democracy in both good times and bad. Trying to overturn outcomes through violence and intimidation is the mark of a society that has lost its way. And we’ve seen far too much of that approach over the past couple of years. What we present to you today is a rational discussion. It’s not about the rulings themselves. We’re not talking about abortion or gun control. Instead we’re talking about how the Constitution is supposed to work… and how to turn down the noise. Spoiler: a little bit of education goes a long way. So if you find yourself accosted by an outraged family member, friend, co-worker, or protester this weekend, ask them if they’ve actually read the rulings, and if so, what specific assertions in the text do they disagree with? You’ll probably get a dumbfounded look… but possibly inspire someone to educate themselves before getting outraged next time. If you want to read the rulings yourself (which I highly recommend) you can do so here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf You can listen to the podcast here:  

In late 2019, a team executive for the NBA’s Houston Rockets Tweeted a very brief statement of support for pro-freedom protesters in Hong Kong. Hardly anyone should have noticed; he didn’t have much of a following, and it was an incredibly harmless comment. Yet that single Tweet caused a massive firestorm. The Chinese government lost its mind — how dare this American peasant say anything that’s counter to our interests?!?! And like that… poof… China’s government censors erased the Houston Rockets off the face of their Internet. It was an amazing display of speed and efficiency. And to be frank, my biggest surprise of 2021 is how well the US has adopted this Chinese-style censorship. It is fast. It is efficient. And it is shockingly brutal. Nowhere is this more obvious than with Covid-1984. A number of Lord Protector Fauci’s emails have recently come to light which show the ridiculous lengths they went to last year to squash any opposition to their policies. The ‘Great Barrington Declaration’ was a joint statement signed by THOUSANDS of scientists around the world, including professors and medical professionals from Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, plus Nobel laureates, etc. These scientists argued for a more common sense, humane approach towards Covid. Lockdowns, they said, came at a significant cost to mental health and childhood development… and the costs of the lockdowns should be carefully weighed against the benefits. But according to their email exchange, Fauci and his colleagues wanted a “quick and devastating published take down” of the Great Barrington Declaration. The idea of ‘trusting science’ quickly turned into ‘trust only the science that WE put in front of you. Don’t trust any other science.’ It has become so absurd that Fauci has now anointed himself as the Holy Duality; last month on CBS television he claimed “I represent science”. So Fauci and science are one and the same. Now, we are quick to point out in this column that the government is generally incapable of doing anything right. Or at a minimum, incapable of doing anything quickly or efficiently. But I have been really surprised at how quickly and efficiently they’ve been able to commandeer total control of the narrative. They have the media and tech companies in line. They have major medical associations in line. They’ve convinced hundreds of millions of people that they are the only source of truth and information, regardless of their obvious lies and bias. And anyone who publicly expresses independent thinking, or dares to challenge this narrative (no matter how strong the evidence) is canceled off the Internet with a Chinese-level of efficiency. This is the topic for today’s podcast as we assess the incredibly bewildering year that we’ve all just experienced. You can listen in here.

It’s a simple question of arithmetic. Imagine you could go back in time to 1871 and ask one of your long lost ancestors to invest $2,500 for the benefit of future generations. That amount of money wasn’t insignificant… but certainly not a major fortune; it would be worth roughly $50,000 in today’s money. When placed in the right structure, and benefiting from compounding returns over the next 150 years, that $2,500 initial investment would be worth an astounding $1.4 BILLION today. Now, sadly none of us owns a time machine. But we do have the power to be that long lost ancestor to future generations. In other words, there’s little stopping you from setting aside some savings in a long-term structure– like a trust, or even a smart contract– that could have an enormous impact on the future. $50,000 invested in the right structure today at, say, a 10% compounding return, will be worth $73 billion in 150 years. Granted we’ll all most likely be long gone by then. And inflation will definitely have eaten up a large chunk of that return. But it’s still going to be an enormous amount of money. And with the right planning, you have the power to decide, today, how that money will be spent and allocated in the future. If you wanted to, you could leave behind strict instructions (which are legally binding) to have the assets liquidated at a certain point in the future, and donated to your favorite charity. Or you could provide future trustees the discretion to make certain donations based on causes that are important to you today. The point is that it’s possible to continue growing your wealth long after you’re gone, and to still exercise significant control over how it can impact the world and future generations. This is the topic for today’s Freedom Podcast, which you can listen to here.

In the early summer of 1514, Spanish conquistador Ponce de Leon returned home to the court of King Ferdinand as a hero. De Leon was among the first of Spain’s conquistadors to discover gold– right here in Puerto Rico. And that was enough for him to be knighted and bestowed all sorts of royal honors. By that time, Europe had been suffering a shortage of gold and silver for nearly a century; mines and mints had closed down all across the continent, triggering what economic historians call ‘The Great Bullion Famine’ in the mid 1400s. So the supply of money, i.e. gold and silver, was essentially stagnant. Technically European money supply was falling, because most European kingdoms ran a trade deficit with Asia and the Middle East. Yet at the same time, European economies were finally starting to grow again following the consequences of the Black Plague and the Hundred Years War. English wool production, for example, nearly tripled between the mid 1400s and the early 1500s. So with more goods and services being produced at a time that money supply was falling, prices declined. This essentially what deflation is. Wages, rents, and food prices in Spain, for example, dropped 25% over a century, according to economic historian E.J. Hamilton. Now that actually sounds pretty good. But to Europe’s rulers, this deflation was a total catastrophe. And it sparked a number of international expeditions to find more gold. Ponce de Leon was just one of many conquistadors to discover rich mineral deposits in Latin America… and then enslave the local populations to mine them. The end result was a veritable mountain of gold being transported back to Spain, triggering a flood of new money into Europe’s economies. Suddenly there was a surge in the money supply… yet roughly the same amount of goods and services being produced. You can probably imagine what happened next: inflation. These are clearly simple concepts; it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in economics to understand that, when you flood the financial system with money, it’s going to have an impact on prices. That was true in Spain in the 1500s. And it’s true today as well. Earlier this year when the government announced sharply higher inflation for the month of March, the Federal Reserve deemed the inflation to be ‘transitory’. That was six months ago. Inflation has surged even higher since then. It’s not hard to understand why. First off– the Fed expanded the money supply last year more than in any other year in US history except for 1943. That’s obviously going to have an impact. At the same time, the government forced businesses to close… and then paid people to stay home and NOT work. So essentially we had a LOT more money in the system, but far fewer goods and services being produced. This has predictably created substantial inflation. Here’s what’s really interesting, though. In its announcement yesterday, the Fed tacitly acknowledged this big inflation problem. They understand that their zero interest rate policy and their bonanza of money printing are both driving prices higher. They also understand that inflation is a MAJOR concern. But then they essentially said, “Yeah, we’ll get to it in a couple of months.” This was astonishing. To give you an example, the Fed has been engaged in a ‘bond buying’ program… which means that they’re flooding the financial system with $120 billion per month in new money. This is definitely a major factor that contributes to inflation. Yet according to its announcement yesterday, the Fed is not even going to START the process of terminating this program until November. And even then, it will take them until the middle of NEXT YEAR before it’s been fully wound up. What’s more, the Fed suggests that they might start raising interest rates by the end of 2022… and only HALF of the voting members think that’s a good idea. Unreal. Inflation is surging near multi-decade highs. But they won’t even start the process to fix it for a couple of months, and might not do anything meaningful at all. There are other factors as well to consider. Competition, for example, is a great counterbalance to inflation. Vigorous competition encourages businesses to deliver the highest quality products at the lowest possible price. And this is how the free market helps keep inflation in check. But take a moment to reflect on US economic priorities: They put a Socialist in charge of the Senate Budget Committee. They forcibly closed countless businesses during the pandemic. They fanned the flames of hysteria to make people terrified to go to work. They spent hundreds of billions of dollars to pay people to stay home and NOT work. And now, even though so many companies are struggling to find employees willing to work, they’re forcing businesses to lay off 90+ million unvaccinated workers. If that weren’t enough, they’re trying to raise taxes on business and investment income, creating even more disincentives. Hunter Biden’s dad insists that he’s a capitalist. But these are all EXTREMELY anti-competitive, anti-capitalist policies. Stifling competition chips away at one of the last major counterbalances to inflation… at a time when the Federal Reserve is in absolutely no hurry to reverse its inflationary policies. Does anyone honestly believe inflation will be transitory? Ironically, even the Fed doesn’t believe it. Because in their updated economic projections, they quietly revised their 2022 inflation forecast notably higher. If you’d like to hear more about this, take a listen to our Freedom Podcast today, which you can download here.

When Gideon Gono became the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in late 2003, his country was already suffering from terrible hyperinflation. Throughout the 1990s, inflation in Zimbabwe averaged well over 20%. And just a few years later inflation had reached 200%. That’s when Zimbabwe’s government hired Gideon Gono to fix the inflation problem. Gono had a reputation as a sharp, competent banker. He had previously been the managing director of Zimbabwe’s largest bank– Bank of Credit and Commerce– so the government thought that Gono had the skills to turn Zimbabwe’s economy around. Despite his keen understanding of money and finance, however, Gono’s policies plunged Zimbabwe even further into hyperinflation. Inflation was running at 600% per year when Gono took over the central bank. And at first, inflation fell to ‘only’ 133%. But by 2007, four years into his term, inflation in Zimbabwe reached more than 60,000%. And by the end of 2008, nearly 80 BILLION percent. Such figures are incomprehensible. I’ve been to Zimbabwe several times and have heard a number of first-hand accounts from residents who lived through this period. There were food shortages, fuel shortages, electricity shortages, and more. Unemployment skyrocketed. Crime rates soared. It was complete and total despair. What could have possibly caused such chaos? Simple. Gono printed absurd quantities of money. And that tidal wave of money flooding into Zimbabwe’s economy caused prices to spiral out of control. By 2006 they had to issue a new currency, essentially chopping a few zeros off of the old currency. Then they started printing million, billion, and trillion dollar bank notes, with which you could barely buy a loaf of bread. In his later memoirs, Gono acknowledged the inflationary risks of his actions. He knew that prices would rise. But as he explains, the situation was so bad that the only sensible course of action was to keep printing more money! Gono’s book, Extraordinary Measures for Extraordinary Challenges, reads something like Julius Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War… or Andrew Cuomo’s ridiculous book on leadership during Covid. They’re all fairly pompous and self-aggrandizing; Gono even defends his actions, saying “To ensure that my people survive, I had to print money. I found myself doing extraordinary things that aren’t in textbooks.” He’s a true hero. It’s ironic, however, that Gono is considered almost a joke among central bankers for failing to control hyperinflation, and he’s soundly criticized for having printing so much money. Yet in an interview with Newsweek, it was Gono wagging his fingers at Western central bankers, saying, “The whole world is now practicing what they have been saying I should not. . .” In other words, most central banks in the world have resorted to printing unimaginable quantities of money, just like Gono did. What’s interesting is that Gono made those comments back in 2009– during the first Global Financial Crisis. Central banks responded to the big crash back then by printing money and expanding their balance sheets; the Federal Reserve, for example, created so much money after the financial crisis that its own balance sheet increased from $850 billion (in 2008) to more than $4 trillion by early 2020. And then Covid happened. In the last 18 months or so, the Fed has printed so much money that its balance sheet now stands at more than $8.3 trillion. That’s nearly TEN TIMES the size from 2008, before the last financial crisis. By comparison, the US economy has grown 23% in ‘real’, i.e. inflation-adjusted terms since 2008. So, the last 13 years has seen 23% real economic growth… and 946% growth in money supply. Last year in particular, M2 money supply grew at a higher rate than any other year in US history aside from 1944. And in completely unrelated news, US inflation over the past several months is near its highest level in more than 30 years! No wonder Gideon Gono feels vindicated. Inflation has hit nearly all sectors of the economy. Food prices. Fuel prices. Medical care. Insurance. Tuition. It’s the same with asset prices too– stocks, bonds, crypto, real estate, etc. are all near record highs. And this phenomenon is largely global. Stocks in the US, Australia, Germany, India, France, South Korea, and more are all near record highs. Property prices are at record highs in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and more. Real estate price hikes can be especially irritating if you’re looking to buy a house right now, whether as a primary residence, or for your Plan B. Nobody wants to feel like they’re overpaying. Fortunately, there are some exceptions where property prices are much more reasonable, and you actually get a lot more value for the money. In today’s podcast episode with Viktorija (who has been traveling extensively lately), we cover a few such places– including southern Spain, and Panama. You can listen in to our conversation here.

It’s not generally in my nature to heap praise upon a place with a 53% tax rate, a 25% VAT, or one of the top ten highest tax burdens in the world. But as I often remark, nearly every place in the world has something great going for it… some unique competitive advantages that set it apart from its peers, balanced against a multitude of disadvantages. Iran is a great example; it suffers from long-term economic decay, constant sanctions, and an authoritarian government. Its disadvantages are numerous. But at the same time the country is an archaeological dream, full of well-preserved ruins from civilizations so old that they were studied by ancient Greek scholars. This is a unique advantage. And for a few people, that sole advantage may outweigh Iran’s numerous disadvantages. After all, everyone has his/her own particular set of priorities. Another example: earlier this year when my wife and I were planning out the birth of our child, we chose to have the baby in Mexico. It was a deliberate decision made after careful consideration of our priorities. We wanted extremely high quality and personalized care from physicians, midwives, etc. who would be available to us around the clock. And I didn’t want COVID restrictions factoring into the birth at all. I wasn’t going to risk being in a place where local rules or hospital policy would have forced my wife to wear a mask during labor… or to keep me out of the delivery room. We very rationally laid out our priorities. And after some research and investigation, we landed on Cancun. For us, it was an incredible decision. Cancun, and Mexico in general, are far from perfect; there are certainly plenty of disadvantages. But for my particular priorities at that moment in time, it was absolutely the right place for me. And that leads me to Sweden. There are plenty of disadvantages. High taxes. High cost of living. Cold weather and lack of sunshine. But for some people those problems might be outweighed by Sweden’s long-standing COVID freedom. To this day there are still countless cities, towns, states, and provinces around the world that continue to restrict freedom. They’ve created first and second class citizenships based solely on someone’s vaccine status. It doesn’t matter if an individual has a severe medical condition– like an autoimmune disorder, for which the FDA itself states, “no data are currently available on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people with autoimmune conditions.” Yet if someone, under advice of their physician, chooses to delay being vaccinated until more data is available for their particular condition, they can be denied basic freedoms, including being a functioning member of society, or potentially having a job. On the other hand, a registered sex offender with a bad case of tuberculosis is welcome with open arms. Politicians and policymakers have also waffled on mask mandates, school openings, and more. Sweden has famously taken a completely different approach during the pandemic– one that they have been constantly derided for in the woke media. But Sweden’s generally light touch with COVID has proven to be quite effective; they did not suffer the economic devastation. And more importantly they did not suffer the mental health devastation. Sweden has not dehumanized its population… nor cultivated a mentality where people view others as filthy, disease-infested vermin rather than friends and neighbors. And yet their COVID track record is just as good, if not better, than its peers in North America and Western Europe. Again, Sweden is not without its challenges and silly rules. But we thought it was worth investigating further… so I asked our CEO Viktorija to spend some time there are report on her findings. She tells us all about it in today’s podcast; you can listen in here.

301 AD was a big year for the Roman Empire. That was the year that, amid spiraling inflation, Emperor Diocletian issued his Edict on Maximum Prices, essentially fixing prices of just about everything across the Roman Empire. The price of wheat, a day labor’s wages, a quart of olive oil, transportation rates– everything was established by the Emperor’s edict, and enforced under penalty of death. Diocletian’s edict infamously didn’t work, and the empire plunged into even more severe inflation. The other big event of 301 AD was the introduction of the solidus gold coin, roughly 4.5 grams of nearly pure gold. And while the Romans had a history of debasing their other coins, like the silver denarius and sesterce, the government actually did a pretty good job maintaining the value and purity of the gold solidus. Even hundreds of years later, after the western empire in Rome had fallen to the barbarians, and imperial power was concentrated in Byzantium, the gold solidus was still approximately as pure as it was in the early 300s. That’s an extraordinary track record for currency stability. Confidence in the gold solidus was so high, in fact, that various tribes and kingdoms around the world used the coin for trade and savings. This became a source of pride for the Byzantine Empire; Justinian I, who ruled in the mid 500s, stated that the solidus was “accepted everywhere from end to end of the Earth,” and that it was “admired by all men in all kingdoms, because no kingdom has a currency that can be compared to it.” It wasn’t until the mid 11th century, more than seven centuries after the introduction of the solidus, that an Emperor began to debase the currency. Just like Hemingway described going bankrupt, the debasement of the solidus was gradual… then sudden. Emperor Constantine IX, who ruled from 1042 to 1055, reduced the gold purity down to 87.5%. His successor brought it down to 75%. By the end of the century it had been reduced to just 33%. The rest of the world took notice. The Byzantine Empire’s political, economic, and military power were waning. And with the rapid debasement of the solidus, international traders looked for other options. Soon the rising Italian city states, particularly Venice and Florence, began minting their own gold coins; Italy was rapidly becoming the dominant economic power in Europe, so their ducats and florins became widely accepted, essentially replacing Byzantine coins for international trade. Throughout history, in fact, reserve currencies have routinely changed, just as frequently as power and wealth shift. For example, the Spanish real de ocho was the dominant reserve currency for hundreds of years, just as the Spanish Empire was the dominant power in the world. But eventually Spain’s wealth and power waned, and the real de ocho was replaced. The Dutch guilder dominated European trade in the 1600s and 1700s, just as the Netherlands’ wealth and power soared. Yet they were displaced by the British Empire and pound sterling in the 1800s and early 1900s. Both the United States and the US dollar have held this status for the last 80 years. And at the moment this is still the case. History, however, is very clear on this point: wealth and power shift. Reserve currencies change. And it would be foolish to assume that this time is different. Reserve currencies hold their status because the rest of the world has confidence– confidence in the soundness of the currency, confidence in the power and prestige of the country that issues it. But let’s be honest: the rest of the world is probably not brimming with confidence in the United States right now. They’re looking at this shameful, disgraceful catastrophe in Afghanistan and wondering, “Is this seriously the world’s dominant superpower?” But it’s more than Afghanistan. It’s endless deficits. It’s ridiculous spending initiatives that pay people to stay home and NOT work. It’s rising inflation thanks to the continued erosion of the US dollar. None of these inspires confidence. It was nearly 1,000 years ago when foreign traders began looking for new options after they lost confidence in the solidus, and in the Byzantine government. Today there are already international banks, multinational businesses, and foreign governments that are starting to diversify out of the US dollar. This is a major change. It’s not something that will happen overnight; like the solidus debasement, it will happen gradually… then suddenly. There will be small milestones and minor events that take place over a period of many years. A lot of it has already happened. But the end result will be a sharp decline in the US dollar’s market share of global reserves. And for anyone holding US dollars, that’s going to mean a LOT more inflation. If you want to learn more about this, I’d encourage you to listen to our Freedom Podcast today; we discuss reserve currencies, the rise of a Chinese alternative, and even potential future conflict with China. You can download and listen here.

While traveling across Europe recently, Sovereign Man’s CEO (Viktorija) became quite ill and needed some urgent medical treatment. First, she’s doing fine, and we’re grateful for that. Second, it’s not COVID. I know that in the collective mind of most of the world, and for especially public health experts, no other disease exists except for COVID. In the US, for example, CDC data on influenza show that, in a ‘normal year’ (2019, for example), the hospitalization rate for patients with influenza is around 65 per 100,000 people. But, miraculously, in 2020/2021, the hospitalization rate for influenza dropped 99%, down to just 0.8 patients per 100,000 people. Do these people actually expect anyone to take this data seriously? Are we honestly supposed to believe that they managed to virtually eradicate the flu? Or is it possible that, maybe just maybe, the hospital system is counting influenza cases as COVID? Perhaps all that government COVID data isn’t as accurate as they claim. Anyhow I digress– back to our CEO. She started feeling some terrible abdominal pain last week that persisted for several days. On Tuesday she was in such bad shape that I urged her to go to the Emergency Room. She’s presently visiting family in Lithuania, so she went to the best private clinic in the country, located just outside of the capital city of Vilnius. When she video called me a few hours later to check in, she was hooked up to an IV in a private room, clearly feeling much better. But she admitted to me that she was concerned about how much the bill would be. She had been undoubtedly scarred by a medical procedure in the US several years ago where the hospital bill rang up to more than $150,000, and she was terrified the clinic in Lithuania would charge her the same. “Relax,” I told her, “it’s probably going to be a couple of thousand euros.” We were both wrong. The total bill for her Emergency Room visit was 140 euros… about $163 at today’s exchange rate. We write a lot in this column about the importance of having a Plan B, and specifically the importance of having a second passport or residency. The idea is to ensure that, no matter what happens, you and your family will always have another place to go. It’s the ultimate insurance policy. And just like a flood or fire insurance policy that covers your house, you hope you’ll never have to use it. But you’ll damn glad you have it in case the worst ever happens. Unlike a fire or flood insurance policy, however, having a second residency or citizenship is an insurance policy that can provide a lot of extra benefits. As Viktorija’s case shows, one of those benefits might be access to inexpensive, high quality medical care. She tells us all about her experiences in today’s podcast, as well as the “beautiful mess” of vaccine passports that’s breaking out across Europe. In Lithuania right now, for example, there are plenty of businesses standing up to vaccine passports, insisting that they’ll continue to serve unvaccinated customers. She also tells us about how she recently traveled through an airport in Europe where no one was wearing masks. It’s a great story– you can listen in here.