*Date: February 16, 2011
Reporting From: Panama City, Panama
My business partner is just plain unlucky.
The last time he came to Panama was about a year ago -- we were both
attending an exclusive Atlas 400 deep sea fishing trip at a remote lodge
in Panama's Darien province. I flew in from Thailand last year, Matt
came from Atlanta.
As he came down the jet bridge to board his flight, he was met by agents
of US Customs and Border Protection, a division of the Department of
Homeland Security. Agents were on the jet bridge randomly screening
passengers... not for bombs, guns, or knives, though... or even drugs
for that matter... but for money.
Matt had to empty his pockets while agents went through his suitcase
inventorying every scrap of currency they could find, and, even though
he was completely within the legal limit of $10,000, he had to waste
time filling out some silly report for them.
Last night he arrived to Panama once again, joining me here for our
Sovereign Man offshore workshop to take place later this week. This time
he connected in Houston, and his experience was even more surreal than
last year.
During yesterday evening's boarding process, customs agents were once
again on the jetbridge, but this time with a highly trained,
currency-sniffing dog. As Matt walked by, the dog sensed the fresh $400
that he'd just pulled out of an ATM machine, and Matt was pulled aside
for secondary screening once again.
The whole episode was over rather quickly -- they asked him a few
questions, he was able to show that he only had $400, and they let him
go. I think there are several interesting points from this, though.
1) It's incredible that, with dozens of passengers walking down the jet
bridge at the same time, the dogs are so highly trained to be able to
spot just a few hundred dollars folded in someone's pockets.
If they can train dogs to find currency, they can certainly train dogs
to catch firearms, bombs, and all of those other security issues that
the government pretends to care so much about.
Instead, though, they line people up like cattle for hours at a time in
order to send them into ridiculously expensive, marginally effective,
harmfully irradiating body scanners under the auspices of security.
Conversely, a single well-trained German Shepherd was able to screen
about 150 passengers in just a few minutes.
2) The government is broke... and they're proving it to everyone with
these desperate attempts to catch people in the act of exporting
currency. After all, they have to pay for those $400,000 body scanners
somehow, and what better way than to shake people down on their way out
the door?
This is really a form of capital controls -- they are regulating the
free flow of capital across by restricting the undocumented movement of
cash. The rule has been in place for a while, but only recently have
they been enforcing it in earnest... and it's amazing to me how the
priority has shifted from contraband, weapons, and drugs to cash.
3) If you're coming to Panama for our workshop, don't bring a lot of
money. The law in the US and Canada is basically the same -- monetary
instruments (coin, currency, traveler's checks, bearer securities)
exceeding $10,000 in value need to be declared prior to departure, and
I'm not sure it's worth ending up on that list.
Keep large amounts of cash at home. If you open a bank account, it's
easier to wire the initial deposit.
Until tomorrow,
Simon Black
Senior Editor, SovereignMan.com
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