Editorial Standards

We publish numbers.
We don't publish vibes.

Every figure on this site — yield, threshold, permit growth, occupancy — traces back to a primary source, recalculated from the original document. Here's exactly how that works, so you don't have to take our word for it.

The Principle

Primary source, or it doesn't get published.

We don't cite another outlet's summary of a law, a decree, or a statistic. We go to the original document — the Gaceta Oficial text, the INEC dataset, the ATP bulletin, the developer's actual payment schedule — and we recalculate the number ourselves from there. When a figure in one of our posts differs from what you've read elsewhere, it's usually because the other source rounded, or worked from a press release instead of the primary filing.

Where we look

Gaceta Oficial (laws and executive decrees), INEC (national statistics), ATP (tourism data), MIVIOT and ANATI (permits and land registry), DGI (tax rules), the Panama Canal Authority and Contraloría General where relevant to the broader investment thesis.

What we recalculate

Percentage changes, effective tax rates, net-of-fee yields, threshold comparisons — we rebuild the math from the underlying figures rather than repeating a headline number someone else already rounded.

What we flag

When a law is still a bill, a decree has a transition window, or a projection is explicitly labeled a reference curve and not a commitment — we say so in the piece, not in fine print at the bottom.

A brochure yield and a verified yield can both be true statements. Only one of them is useful for a decision.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Two examples from this week.

Executive Decree No. 17 (visas)

Instead of repeating "the threshold changes," we read the decree text, identified the actual split (new-build vs. resale), and rewrote our own August piece with a dated correction note rather than quietly editing it.

The homepage visa badge

Our own countdown badge was built on a decree that got superseded. When the update landed, we corrected the badge the same day — the fix is part of the record, not hidden.

Corrections

When we're wrong, the fix is dated and visible.

If a regulation changes after we publish, we don't delete the old post — we add a dated update note with a link to what actually happened, in the piece itself. If we made an outright error, tell us and we'll correct it and say so. There's no situation where the honest version of a number is worse for us than a stale one; a buyer who catches us quietly fixing something loses more trust than one who sees us catch it ourselves.

How AI fits into thisWe use AI to help process public datasets, draft first passes, and prepare charts faster. It never decides what gets published or verifies itself — every figure that reaches this site is checked by a person against the primary source before it goes live, and a person is accountable for it after.
Read the Data-Backed Posts → Question a Number →