patrick.net

The problem with Brazil right now is that they can't do anything to slow the country down. Higher interest rates won't do it, like they do in the US. I finally realized why. Businesses make huge amounts of profit in Brazil if they're run correctly. While a company here might make 20% margins and 5-10% profits, they make 100% margins in Brazil with 20% profits in Brazil, while their costs SHOULD be far lower. They're just hemorrhaging money because they simply don't have a culture that knows how to be productive.

But for someone who wants to invest, or wants to get involved, they're going to borrow at whatever costs because it's so lucrative down there.

I was just in Salvador, as we were leaving, the taxi driver said: They've just built 50 of these towers, and they're building 50 more. They were far out of the city, with what would probably become a horrendous commute in 3 years. 100, brand new, residential towers. Probably 20 stories high. Housing has been going up at 25% a year for the last 8 years or so.

I'm not sure what will happen, but it's going to be explosive when it does.

I get around 9-10% in a savings account down there, 6% flat, with 3-4% inflation adjusted. It's also income tax free, because the government is trying to get people to save.

Don't bother trying to open up an account, you'll go insane. My wife a CPF (SSN), and old accounts, so we use those.

GameOver says

Hard bullion is the only thing that you could readily sell to finance most of the other purchases on your list in a Doomsday scenario, don't you think?

I almost forgot slaves! Yes, slaves are portable, easy to sell, hard to print, and they have many uses.

All you have to do is get people to borrow lots of money from you, and to think they must protect you because they want to be like you one day. Then they are your slaves.

They will work, and you will take the results of their work. Just call it "interest" and it's legal. Even better, call it "The American Dream" or "The Free Market" and they will defend their own slavery to the death. They'll never figure out that they are doing all the work and you are getting all the benefit of it.

The only risk is if government shifts taxes to non-productive income like interest in place of taxes on actual work. But there's really no chance of that ever happening, especially with our "representative" democracy that represents only the non-productive slave owners. So you can enjoy your slaves, generation after generation.

Patrick : YOU should run for office. You got the right stuff mister.

JodyChunder says

Patrick : YOU should run for office. You got the right stuff mister.

Thanks! I'd be interested if I didn't have to take money from people who would then want to tell me how to vote on laws.

But we don't have any public campaign finance for Congress, right?

And without the privately-funded Congress voting to make publicly-funded Congress a possibility, it will remain impossible. Catch-22, I think.

Caution about those Caribbean countries' banks though. I have an American friend in Europe who opened an account in the Cayman Islands I think. Anyway, the bank went under and took his whole deposit with it. No FDIC. Money gone.

Jason M. says

Caution about those Caribbean countries' banks though. I have an American friend in Europe who opened an account in the Cayman Islands I think. Anyway, the bank went under and took his whole deposit with it. No FDIC. Money gone.

Thanks Patrick... taking this to the next level: What countries are good choices for residency (not relocating to), for the purpose of moving investments? Let's get a list together. Rather than guess, I invite anyone posting information to provide links to objective sources. Cost and difficulty of gaining residency is also very helpful information to post, at the same time, if available. Thanks in advance.

http://www.panamalaw.org/index.html has some good info.

Nice ass ets.