Don't confuse me... I really like Brazil. But the economy there is not good at all ! I have seen very talented people from BR having to move to other countries because they had no way of growing there and this happens to many talented people there as well. The companies are simply vanishing, because they cannot sustain themselves with the high tax policy and the governament in the other hand don't give support for new born companies, only with high fees and taxes. It is also estimated by some specialists that AT LEAST 30% of what comes in as tax to the BR governament vanishes in the air ! * If some people wants to go in the BR market should do that with a certain caution and with some trusted BR expert behind. There are many areas that are very interesting for investmenting, but most of the time those niches are not open capital companies.
Excellent Commentary All... .......................................................... One quick measure of a country's outlook is its yield on money over a period of time... Over the last 4 years ...a typical after tax rate in any decent Brazilian Bank has paid 2:1 versus the dollar based opportunities which are at a comparable 1.05 to 1.0... This is certainly a true reflection of the current economic trend of the country.... .......................................................... And one could say that basic every day common freedoms are better than that of the US...The US is incredibly litigious... ............................................................ Look...it is not everybody's cup of tea.. but an international lifestyle..getting a taste of several countries is a wonderful experience... ie..in one country where I frequent...you can ride a horse...motorcycle (no helmet)...car..truck... to work and nobody cares...In fact the country is so wild that over 60% of the housing in the capital city do not have validated land titles...Its like ...who cares...music and rum...music and rum...It's kinda like the old west...and yeah I do wear a gun...but I kinda like it..as well... Look ...its your choice...as a professional trader ...you live where you want to live...Personally...I like the wild side a little better...All countries have their pluses and minuses....and the beautiful women are worth it alone...
I just returned from a 4 month stint in Brazil. Loved the place. Some of the friendliest people I've ever met. My observations: Yep, the freedoms they enjoy are definitely more liberal than in the States. Most laws actually are not enforced at all, unless its really serious, or the Police think they can get some money out of you. I saw this on almost a daily basis (pot and cocaine use/ sales totally ignored, cops making false chasrges for cash kickbacks - which happened to me personally, etc). I'll take the moderately stricter freedoms in the States any day. Employmnent rate there is greatly exaggerated, at least in the North. Fully half the adult males I met were either unemployed, or invented services or schemes to bring in some cash. Many of them lived with their extended families (parents, grandpaerents, etc). Didn't matter how old they were. Luckily, it is also very cheap to live there. Banking. Definitely in the dark ages. ATM's were down half the time, and it took me two full hours to get cash via my credit card once (I only tried it once). Flat panel monitors networked throughout the retail bank office, but they were never used. The cash process using a credit card took the banker numerous phone calls. In the States, or any modern economy that I can think of, this process would take a few minutes tops. Even regular banking chores for the locals had them waiting in massive lines. Brazil certainly has HUGE potential, but they are so dependent on commodity prices, that I see the country having serious problems once the commodity boom has run its course. Jay
I have been investing in Mutual Funds for years, and currently looking for a newsletter that is specialized in selecting Asia and emerging growth mutual funds. Can you suggest any newsletter that is specialized in that? Thanks in advance, Blade2000
. âBrazil real gains on bond buyback, stocks slipâ Reuters â February 23, 2006 SAO PAULO, Brazil, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's currency rallied early on Thursday after the Treasury announced plans to buy back all outstanding Brady bonds, while stocks drifted lower in light trading. The real <BRBY> gained ground against the U.S. dollar for the second straight session, advancing 0.84 percent to 2.124 to the greenback, leaving the Brazilian currency at its strongest level in nearly five years. The real rallied after Brazil's Treasury said it plans to use call options on April 15 to buy back about $6.6 billion in outstanding Brady bonds in the market. The bonds were issued in 1994 as Brazil emerged from a debt crisis. The Treasury had already said on Feb. 9 that it planned to buy back Brady bonds depending on market conditions, but it didn't address the potential use of call options. Eliminating the Brady bonds would get rid of old debt that is expensive to service, allowing Brazil to sell new debt on cheaper terms. "When the Treasury made the first announcement, it was implicit that it would buy back the Bradies," said Marcelo Voss, a market analyst at Liquidez, a Sao Paulo brokerage. "But the market saw the latest announcement as new ... because it didn't know when the buyback would happen." Brazil's improving debt profile is one of several factors that have helped strengthen the local currency over the last year. The real has also been buoyed by a steady flow of dollars into the market from record exports, corporate bond sales overseas and high domestic interest rates, which have attracted yield-hungry foreign investors in droves. The central bank has sought to stem the real's surge by selling currency swaps linked to interest rates and intervening regularly in the market to buy dollars. On Thursday it will offer some $227.5 million in swaps and is widely expected to offer to buy dollars on the spot marketâ¦. .
. April 15, 2006 SouthAmerica: On Friday Brazil signed an agreement with a Japanese company â Brazil is adopting the Japanese âdigital high-definition televisionâ system in Brazil. Here is the entire story: Folha de Sao Paulo â April 14, 2006 âJapão aplaude memorando brasileiro sobre TV digitalâ From: France Press, em Tóquio O ministro japonês da Economia, Comércio e Indústria, Toshihiro Nikai, reagiu nesta sexta-feira com entusiasmo à assinatura de um memorando sobre a criação de um sistema nipo-brasileiro de TV digital. "Se o padrão japonês for adotado no Brasil, nossa tecnologia digital poderá ser difundida em outros paÃses da América Latina", disse o ministro à agência de notÃcias Kyodo. "No mercado internacional, os formatos de televisão digital estão monopolizados por europeus e norte-americanos. O memorando com o Brasil marca uma nova etapa no avanço da tecnologia japonesa". O chanceler brasileiro, Celso Amorim, e seu colega japonês, Taro Aso, firmaram na quinta-feira em Tóquio um memorando pelo qual o Japão se compromete a ajudar na implantação no Brasil de um sistema de TV digital baseado no padrão japonês ISDB-T, mas aberto a futuras inovações técnicas brasileiras. A decisão final sobre o padrão será tomada pelo presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, que deverá escolher entre o europeu DVB-T, o americano ATSC e o ISDB-T. Para firmar o memorando, o Brasil obteve o compromisso da empresa japonesa Toshiba de construir uma unidade de produção de semicondutores no território brasileiro. .
. April 22, 2006 SouthAmerica: April 21, 2006 is a day that every Brazilian should be proud of since is the day that separates the men from the boys. April 21, 2006 marked an end to decades of Brazilian dependence on foreign oil, and fuel bills that plunged Brazil into debt when oil prices soared in the 1970s. As the Brazilian economy moves forward into the future with a very smart government energy policy â the United States economy becomes more risky with every passing day when you consider that the United States is so dependent on âFOREIGN OILâ and the oil that the US needs to fuel its economy comes from places that are swamped with trouble and in the middle of major civil wars such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Iran, Nigeria, and so on. And the United States canât keep its supply of oil coming even from next door in Venezuela since China slowly is taking away from the US that source of energy. As Brazil becomes the model for energy policy in the new century at the same time the United States is getting desperate to keep its economy going with the energy sources of the past. In terms of energy policy the United States is 30 years behind Brazil. And when you take in consideration the growing demand for oil from around the world â that puts Brazil as a country in a class by itself â Today Brazil represents the world of tomorrow. ****** âNew Rig Brings Brazil Oil Self-Sufficiencyâ By PETER MUELLO, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 21, 2006 AP â Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, dressed in an orange jump suit, drenched his hand in oil as he flipped the switch Friday on a new oil rig that will usher in overall independence from foreign oil. The start of production at the P-50 rig off Brazil's south Atlantic coast puts Brazil on track to produce as much oil as it consumes. Silva showed off his oily hand to a crowd on the rig, a gesture imitating President Getulio Vargas when he created the government-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, in the early 1950s. The production milestone â coordinated to fall on a national holiday honoring 18th-century independence hero Tiradentes â marked an end to decades of dependence on foreign oil, and fuel bills that plunged Brazil into debt when oil prices soared in the 1970s. Petrobras said the huge P-50 rig will boost national oil production to an average of 1.9 million barrels a day this year, more than average consumption of 1.85 million barrels a day. "It's an important date for the country, and Petrobras has every right to be proud," said Luiz Broad, an oil analyst at the Agora Senior brokerage in Rio de Janeiro. As more offshore rigs come online, Petrobras expects to join the ranks of the world's net oil exporters, with production exceeding demand by nearly 300,000 barrels a day in 2010. Brazil still has to import light crude oil for the refined products it needs. The country produces â and exports â mostly heavy crude oil, which has to be mixed with the light oil in refineries. The net-exporter status will boost Brazil's trade surplus and help shield the country from oil-price shocks. Petrobras said it won't pass on the spikes in international oil prices to Brazilian consumers. Oil prices reached a record $73 a barrel on Tuesday It's quite a change from the 1970s, when Brazil imported 85 percent of the oil it consumed, deepening a foreign debt that raised inflation to four digits and pushed the country to the brink of bankruptcy. "We have the fastest-growing oil industry in the world," Petrobras Chief Executive Sergio Gabrielli said Thursday. Brazil still depends on natural gas imported from Bolivia, on its own nuclear power and on hydroelectric dams to produce electricity, and on an abundance of ethanol, an alternative fuel made from Brazilian sugar cane. Brazil produced only 2,700 barrels of oil a day when Petrobras was founded in 1953, and consumed 137,000 barrels a day. With the slogan "The oil is ours," the company set out to find oil in a country larger than the lower 48 U.S. states. In 1968, the company began searching offshore in the Campos Basin near Macae, 110 miles east of Rio de Janeiro. The big break came six years later, with the discovery of the Garoupa field. New discoveries followed, and Macae became an oil boomtown as the Campos Basin grew to become Brazil's top oil producer. Today, more than 80 percent of Brazil's oil comes from offshore fields. Petrobras also became a world leader in deep-water drilling, developing state-of-the-art equipment and setting world records for deep-water drilling. It is Brazil's biggest and the 14th-largest oil company in the world, with operations in 15 countries. After the government broke the company's oil monopoly in 1995, Petrobras remained a top player in the market. The company snapped up exploration zones that Brazil put up for auction to international bidders. "The company did its homework, did what was possible," said Victor Martins, an oil analyst with Safra Bank. Martins said Petrobras would have to raise oil output to keep pace with demand, which is growing despite the expansion of ethanol, and the rising sales of flex-fuel cars that run on both gasoline and ethanol. "The important thing is the flexibility we have now," he said. "We can produce here or buy abroad, whichever is cheaper." .
. April 26, 2006 SouthAmerica: South American countries will participate in a $20 billion continent-spanning natural gas pipeline from Venezuela to Argentina approx. 6,200 miles in length. ******** EFE News â April 26, 2006 SOUTH AMERICA-SUMMIT âLeft-leaning trio invite regional leaders to pipeline unveilingâ Sao Paulo, Apr 26 (EFE) - The left-leaning leaders of three South American heavyweights - Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela - agreed here Wednesday to invite their counterparts from throughout the region to August's scheduled unveiling of Caracas' plan for a $20 billion continent-spanning natural gas pipeline. The agreement was one of the results of the one-day summit in Sao Paulo among Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. At a post-meeting press conference, Chavez said that the three countries agreed to hold another presidential get-together within the next three months to continue evaluating the project. The trio also decided to invite all the other South American presidents to another meeting in August at a still-unspecified location to present the plan to them. Chavez, who was the only one of the three leaders to speak to the press, said that the ultimate objective is to create an enormous network of pipelines traversing the entire continent connecting the gas pipeline running through Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina with the one carrying gas between Bolivia and Brazil and the Transguajiro conduit that his country will begin building soon with Colombia. The Transguajiro pipeline could be extended to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. "They're what we call the energy cones of South America, one in the Andean region and and other in Mercosur," he said with maps in hand, adding that the aim is to sell Venezuelan gas at low prices to the other countries in the region. "The gas pipeline must be the locomotive for a new integration process, the goal of which is to destroy poverty and exclusion," said the Venezuelan leader. He added that the Venezuela-Brazil-Argentina line has several potential routes, according to different studies, and will be some 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) in length. It will be built between 2007 and 2017 and will provide more than 1 million jobs, requiring an investment of some $20 billion. The resources, Chavez said, will come from the governments of the nations themselves and from private investors. "There are going to be too many resources for this project," said Chavez. He said that some firms, like the Russian state-run gas entity Gazpron, have shown an interest in participating in the project. Chavez said that the trio decided to invite Bolivia to join the project and later to do the same with the other South American countries. "We're talking about incorporating Bolivia and we agree that we must open up this project to all the South American countries," Chavez said. "Incorporating Bolivia is a priority because of its gas reserves, which are the second-largest in South America after the Venezuelan ones," he said. The former army officer remarked that the South American nations must prepare for the worldwide energy crisis he said was approaching and the gas pipeline is the best tool to confront such a threat. The first phase of the pipeline, which will run from the Venezuelan city of Puerto Ordaz to the Brazilian city of Manaus, will be finished between 2009 and 2010, Chavez said. The Venezuelan leader called the joint effort "the hope of the poor" and he added that it, in conjunction with Brazil's policy of pushing the use of biofuels, creates an "energy guarantee for the development of the South American countries in the 21st century and possibly beyond." Chavez said that the Venezuelan gas reserves amounted to 151 trillion cubic feet, which is almost half the total reserves in the Western Hemisphere trailing only those of the United States, which has known reserves of 189 trillion cubic feet. "But with the rate of consumption they have, they will use them up in a few years," he said of the United States. .
. May 17, 2006 SouthAmerica: A strong currency also can hurt you. ************ REUTERS âGM slashing jobs at main Brazil plant on forexâ Tue May 16, 2006 SAO PAULO, Brazil, May 16 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp's Brazilian unit will cut 960 jobs, or 10 percent, from the work force at its main car plant to cope with falling exports after the Brazilian currency's sharp appreciation versus the dollarâ¦. .
. May 25, 2006 SouthAmerica: The cumulative Brazilian government debt as of the end of April 2006 declined to 50 percent of Brazilian GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The total debt at R$ 1,014 trillion is equivalent to $ 440 billion US dollars. Only a small portion of this outstanding debt is denominated in foreign currency and can be affected by the fluctuations of the Brazilian currency in world markets. ******** âDÃvida do governo cai para 51% do PIBâ By: ANA PAULA RIBEIRO Folha de Sao Paulo, em BrasÃlia A Folha de Sao Paulo â May 25, 2006 A dÃvida lÃquida do setor público chegou em abril a R$ 1,014 trilhão, o equivalente a 51% do PIB (Produto Interno Bruto). No mês anterior, a relação dÃvida/PIB estava em 51,8%. Segundo nota do Banco Central, o superávit primário de R$ 19,4 bilhões de abril contribuiu para essa queda da dÃvida. Além disso, houve a apreciação cambial de 3,8% no mês passado. 'O resultado primário contribuiu positivamente para a dinâmica da dÃvida', disse Altamir Lopes, chefe do Departamento Econômico do BC. Esse é o menor patamar para a dÃvida desde maio do ano passado, quando a relação entre dÃvida e PIB estava em 50,8%. O esforço fiscal contribui para a melhora desse indicador. Nos primeiros quatro meses do ano, a economia para o pagamento de juros da dÃvida somou R$ 40,407 bilhões, o equivalente para o perÃodo a 6,36% do PIB (Produto Interno Bruto). A meta para o ano é de 4,25% do PIB. Em relação ao mês de dezembro, a relação dÃvida/PIB caiu 0,5 ponto percentual. Para maio, a previsão é que a relação fique em torno de 50,6%. Para Altamir, a elevação da cotação do dólar contribui para essa queda, já que o governo terá um ganho com as operações de swap. .