Brazzil

Your article was just the summary of recent news and any investor would be aware of most of the above information.

Anyway, I noticed on your bio that you did work for Veja magazine.

Yesterday my cousin arrived from Brazil and on his way to New York City he stopped on my house for a visit. He has a hedge fund in Sao Paulo specialized on infrastructure investments in Brazil. He had some meetings in the next few days with some major Wall Street investment banks.

His sister Maria Antonia is married with Mr. Roberto Civita, the owner of Editora Abril - the parent company of Veja magazine.

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Brazil is still one of the most "closed" economies on the planet with numerous barriers to foreign investment particularly the heavy tax rate not to mention the beaurocracy.
The brunt of foreign investment in Brazil are traders making "short term" investments in the ibovespa and/or bonds, making a quick hit and then leaving for "safer" markets. Now the brazilian gov't. is even putting a half on that with their 2% tax per transaction and actually talking about increasing it to 4%!

Sometimes it's difficult to decide which economy is "more free", Brazil's or Cuba's!

The million-dollar-question, these days, is what to do in 2010 with what's left of your hard-earned money, right?

Wrong.The Million-Real question is whether there would be any of my hard-earned money would be left at all at the end of 2009!

Please, give me some feedback, because I intend to publish this type of report every couple of months.

Your article and many of the notable National and International Magazines do not touch upon a thorny issue called "INFLATION" and the methodology used to calculate the rate.According to our Economic Gurus who do not indulge in partisan politics, for the past two years, the accumulated inflation rate is 22%.They say and I have personally observed that the increase in the prices of basic food items is more than that of the "official" inflation rate. The same thing applies to the pharmaceutical products.

It is worth taking a hard look into this particular aspect of the economy. Regarding infrastructure, I suggest you read an old article written by Mr.Ricardo Amaral and the comments made by several bloggers here and his replies too. I would love to see foreign money coming in to build our infrastructure and create many jobs for skilled professional, instead of it going to BOVESPA. What is hindering it? I think BO gave part of the answer.

My final question: What is the point in auto makers investing Billions of dollars and producing and selling 3 Million vehicles per year if we have just 212,000 Kms of paved roads? In case you are not aware, the sales are up because of the reduced IPI as in the case of Building materials, White goods, etc; Less IPI means less money into the coffer of the Government. I wonder how the new government in 2011 will make up for the reduced revenue. My bet is new taxes and increase in the personal tax rate.

However, my advice to my friends and relatives is "Make hay while the Sun Shines,but do not expect the government to bail you out when you are unable to pay your debts. "

Ricardo, thanks for your feedback. To a certain extent, I fully agree with you - most of the info I organized is somehow expressed by the foreign press. On the other hand, while big/corporate investors, those with time on their hands or good connections have easy access to this sort of info, beginner investors, those with little info about Brazil and those who have little time available can use a quick summary like this one.

everyone used to always blame the dollar for these price hikes, but now, that it isnt a factor , it feels very strange and ominous...

i even noticed food prices rising in recife over the last 4 years or so, where it always would be less expensive than the southern half of the country...

everyone used to always blame the dollar for these price hikes, but now, that it isnt a factor , it feels very strange and ominous...

Ominous is the appropriate word to describe the skyrocketing prices of staple food items in the N.E, ASP!!

Bo is right, but let's not mistaken ourself with "true" open economies on the globe. Great example of a developed area that claims to be true free/open trade but have a "hidden" protectionist policies is Europe, South Korea and Japan. What about the fastest growing Communist China? Is far more protected/corrupted than Brazl. China of course is "the darling" for it's cheap labor, one union boss (the government what many people forget) and where hyped investors still don't realize that investing in China is like fishing in murky waters, what the boss, the government, prefers. How about India? India is as protected like Brazil. We all can name more, but the BRIC nations are popular because of their policies, and because investors are smelling more opportunities, big profits (by low sell high)today and in the long term, than in the broke,pc language ,spoiled, taking for granted mentality,over regulated, and to many or way to many old people who will demand their pension, in developed nations, mainly in Western Europe and Japan. The US is so far the most open economy in the world, but since it lost it's common sense economic policies under previous administrations and under the current one (Obama drama), that led and still leads to job losses, faith in the "open market" strategy is dropping at an alarming rate. About what Regina sharf posted is in my opinion also explaining that Brazilians should understand that they are in a time of opportunties and don't waste it. Do what you must do, keep learning from the mistakes of the past (the time of super protectionism that eventually lead to hyperinflation) and amazingly learn by paying attention of how the governments in the US, UK and Japan are struggleling and making the same huge mistakes, because of fear, greed, or both, idiotic "going 100% green" idealogy and losing their mind. You name it.

"blame the dollar"

Well actually you can, since it's the "reserve" currency in the trading world of commodoties, but is being trashed by mr Bernanke and Mr. Obama who believes that the government "must and "should" control the economy, we all know what concequenses will be but temporary for nations who keep their balance sheet balanced. The world can easly create a new reserve currency (what's actually already happening behind close doors), but what we never should do is create one world currency. Imagine how terrible that will be. If that happens I prefer be in the jungle and fishing.

Regina nice story but you typed: Banco Central (the Brazilian equivalent of the American Fed)

Not really, BCB/BOB (Banco Central do Brasil/Bank Of Brazil) is an independent Brazilian controled institute of the Government. The Federal Reserve Bank haves the rep**ation that it is an independent institution of the US Government, but not anymore since 1913, when the Federal Act was passed and signed. The Act proves that the Federal Reserve Bank is a privatly owned company by other "investors". Just compare it with “Goldman Sachs”. In otherwords, the money supply is not controled by the government like how it is done in Brazil. As we know or should know, who controls the money supply (bonds)of a nation, has power.

Now Mr. Paul Krugman, he is wrong when it comes that the Brazilian economy is a bubble (again it's running on strong fundamentals and less on hype) but he's right when if he meant that an eventually bubble in Brazil is happening, of an overvalued Real. The real is attracted by long term investors who have confidence in the economy but also speculators who are investing with borrowed dollars against close 0% interest rates (0% FED policy brought us here trouble). A strong Real is good for Brazilians, in the long term it "can" be a problem (can lead to trade deficit) but if it does what it suppose to be do, invest more in your economy/society and other common sense economic policies, it eventually has a higher chance to make a soft landing and move forward when the bubble burst. As I typed here before so long you stay on earth, don't follow easy the hype, but do what you must do, you will be fine and see the sun rising and shining with a

He has a hedge fund in Sao Paulo specialized on infrastructure investments in Brazil. He had some meetings in the next few days with some major Wall Street investment banks.


Really Ricardo? Good for your cousin, but can you find out or if you already know tell us which major wall street investment bank managers he's going to meet? I would like to know where some bailout money is going, oh wait, it's called "investment money" today... and might be good for my shares..

Here, I'm reading what's happening in the continent where my dear mother lives. She doesn't live in Greece (where the situation is dire and where Brazilians can read some familiar situations) but what is happening there will have an effect on the EU and the UK. Those two are literary changing in front of our eyes. The comments are also interesting. after reading it, you won't feel bad at all to invest or live in Brazil, today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6630117/Greece-tests-the-limit-of-sovereign-debt-as-it-grinds-towards-slump.html

Connection to article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fin...slump.html


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Many thanks for your great comments, Nichoals. I would love to read more imputs of yours in the future.

I made my decision to move from the USA to I didnt know where, The verry day (WE) voted in GwB for the second time. So I resurchd diffrent countries laws and econmys on the internet for a year. Then I sold sold my house in Las Vegas paid the bank I was forsed to pay old hospital bills where thay leaned my house,
($22.000 for 4 hours in the hospital) Then tuke a small profit and invested in Brazil. I Know have enough to return to L.V. and Buy 3 houses like the one I sold, No bank money needed. Before I settled on a city to live in Brazil I visited all the beach citys in Brazil. Made alought of mistakes moveing me and my money around. Cost me almost $10.000 to tour the country. But Iv learned alought. One of the interesting things to me is the inconstantsy of realestate prices in any given area. You might find a house that has sold for R,145.000 and another house just like it in the same nehborhood sold the same month for R,240.000. Thay dont do comparisons like the rest of the buisness world. So there is some money to be made here if you just put your nose to the ground and get a good deal. Also of intrest to learn is that it is the law, that all brazilians over 18 have to get out and vote.
Also of intrest to me, is that young girls dont say things like
Euww hes like 40 Grr,ouse.
Girls here are verry friendly. Expecialy if you are american. It isnt becaus of the $ I have property but Im broke. I take girls out on my Bike. Thay sit on the back of my bike, happy as can be. Im dang cute for a 47 year old man, and in las vegas Im a player. I drove a BMW and had 2 boats. But here Im much more popular with the Girls. Im now ingaged to a 22 year old smart beautiful collage student.
As far as employment goes here, americans can always get a job teaching english. even the smallest towns have english schools.
Another thing I got a hernia for the first time in my life I went to the hospitle showed them my water bill to prove I had residency in the town of Cabo Frio and thay gave me a verry thurough check up Blood urin and all operated with in 3 weeks Im good as new, and it didnt cost me 1 cent..!!!
Brazilians spend more time in the doctors office than anurotic american with insurence.
My Email is stagehndlr@yahoo.com Il help you not make that $10.000 in mistakes.

You write pretty good American English. Did you study in Harvard, before settling down in Vegas and then moving to our country?

As far as employment goes here, americans can always get a job teaching english. even the smallest towns have english schools.

With your impeccable English, any Federal University will be happy to hire you as a tenure track professor. Just quote your price.

Mike Gilligan: You say some strange things here that makes me think your are a superficial person who likes to brag about how much money they have, but in fact, it is lots of big talk and hot air as we say up North. Are you really American??? Certainly your English literacy needs help as Andrade amusingly points out. You say Americans can teach English in Brazil. I wouldn't pay you a centavo for an English lesson, bro. Besides, having lost nearly all my previous savings surviving as an English teacher, trying to support my family while working in Brazil, I wouldn't seriously recommend this to anyone but a college student who just wants to get by and travel around the country.
You say you are a "player" and "dang cute" with lots of young women chasing you and able to buy 3 houses now in Las Vegas. Bro, you sound like you made some money as a "flipper" back in the US, buying a house at a low price, repainted it, then "flipped it" and resold as doubled the price in an inflated market. Of course it was people like you and the Wall st banks that created the housing bubble, which contributed no real growth to the economy, but resulted in a recession when the s**t finally hit the fan. I doubt your story about being able to buy 3 houses in LV, since your entire message sounds like childish bragging. Besides, real estate in Las Vegas has collapsed. Why would you want to buy there? And you think the young girls and BMWs you brag about, makes you a "player"? You sound like a loser, not a "player". There is more to life than chasing BMWs and crass symbols of wealth and prestige. People desperate to brag about this, need to learn what is more important; family, love, loyalty, humor, creativity, hard-work, pursuing knowledge, working for the good of humanity, bringing happiness to others, caring for other people who are poor, hungry, sick, lonely, oppressed, etc. These are quiet things you hold in your heart, not things you need to brag about on a blog. If you are American, no wonder people have a bad view of americans here. Fortunately, you are not a typical American, or not like anyone I call a friend.

Fortunately, you are not a typical American, or not like anyone I call a friend.

Quote of the week, Mr.Anonymous and my kudos! Mike Gilligan must be a boorish redneck from deep south (of Mason-Dixie line). Do you still call me a Jingoistic Brasilian after reading his rants?

USA has Obama now surely your messiah should make you want to return.

Grow your money in Brazil? How about watch helplessly as a merciless “custo Brasil” slowly bleeds you and your hard-earned savings drop by drop?
By the way, if Paul Krugman, last year's Nobel Prize winning economist, and a respected progressive writer for the New York Times as well as Princeton professor says that the real is over-valued and there is a bubble developing, I would listen carefully. If you really have reasons to doubt his claim, you don't explain in detail any of it here. I should mention that Americans ignored his warnings and other like him who were concerned about the growing housing bubble that resulted in the greatest recession in the US since the 1930s. You just say that you would go with the assessment of the Finanical Times, as if dropping a name is sufficient reason to accept your premise. And you admit that you are not a financial analyst, so considering that you give little explanation as to why he is wrong, and you admit you have no training as an economist, with all due respect, if I were an investor, why would I dump my money in Brazil according to your "observations"? Since you are asking for feedback, I frankly do not even understand what would motivate you to write such an article. If I saw an equivalent story promoting investment in the US, I would have to think it naïve amateurish journalism at best, or at worst, a contrived article endorsed by jingoistic political views, or even worse by some business interests incapable of providing an objective assessment of the investment climate. Do the Brazilian or American Chamber of Commerce of Brazil encourage such articles? I must say, however, in fairness to you, that you at least acknowledge the “custo Brasil” (Kafkaesque bureaucracy, corruption, graft, nepotism, crime, decrepit infrastructure, etc). The authors of many of the articles that appear on this website would benefit greatly from a course in Journalism 101. The overall effect is that this blog often resembles a non-stop 24-hours a day TV infomerical praising all things Brazilian as extraordinary. While your story is not like some of the more blatant examples of this genre, it seems to fit in as well. Rather than giving advice about “growing your money in Brazil”, I would prefer reading a story that would help non-Brazilians survive the custo Brasil if they needed to be in Brazil. As for investors, whether Brazilian, American or any other seriously wealthy capitalists, I really don’t care what they do with their money. I suppose they can pay highly skilled analysts for such advice. I don’t really know much about such investments, but I could care less about whether some rich capitalist can come to Brazil to “grow their money” while exploiting the some desperately poor workers in Brazil.

I am more concerned about more ordinary middle class people who may be thinking of buying a home, property, or starting a small business in Brazil. If you are such a person, I would certainly look beyond this article. In fact, while I can’t recommend what is the right thing for you to do, as all of your situations will vary, I would only encourage you to read as much as possible about the life in Brazil. Many of the stories on this blog are written by uber-nationalists, something equivalent to a loud-mouthed American redneck, incapable of acknowledging anything negative about Brazil, whose ideas could be summarized as US = Evil, Brazil = Paradise. But if you read between the lines here, you can hear the experiences of numerous non-foreigners who came to Brazil, and spent years slowly losing their savings, while entangled in a system fraught with corruption, crime, bureaucracy, and inefficiency. In my opinion, the Brazilian government and people are not eager to see you come to Brazil and do well, and they place roadblocks in your way to ensure this. While millions of Brazilians come to the US to improve their situation, the reverse is not true, no matter how much they hype Brazil on these pages. If you are like the many Americans with silly starry-eyed stereotypes of Brazilians as a warm friendly laid-back people, dancing, singing and carousing in the streets in some kind of for uninhibited bacchanalian carnival festival, then I deplore you to “wake up and smell the coffee” as we say up North.

If you are an average middle class American thinking of coming here with children, I would especially encourage you to think very carefully about such a move. Brazilian cities are regularly designated “kidnapping capital of the world”. Do your homework and learn about crime you will face in Brazil. While the vast inequality of wealth in Brazil is perceived as deeply entrenched, many poor with disturbing violent tendencies see few other opportunities available for them to escape poverty. While working with graduate students and university professors, who in fact are paid relatively poorly compared to EU and US counter parts, I learned that the majority of them had been robbed (criminals with machine guns, knives, and pistols) kidnapped and ransomed. Often they were victims of car jacking, or “lightning-kidnapping” where they are forced to go to various ATM machines and withdraw money. Some had been victims only once, while others had experienced multiple kidnappings and had been carjacked as many as three times. While big cities in the US have crime, its relatively mild compared to Brazil. The ways in which you can be robbed in Brazil are as diverse and varied as the rainforest fauna, ranging from taxi drivers driving you in circles and padding your bill to and endless array merchants who find ways to squeeze a little more out of you. Learn as much as possible about crime there before subjecting your family to this. We lived in Brazil for 2.5 years with our toddler and we always were hyper-vigilant about such dangers. While we were preparing to return to the US, I remember a blood-chilling story about a toddler who was killed by criminals who carjacked a car at gunpoint, then kicked out the parents and threw the child out the door in his child seat. But his seat was tangled in the safety belts, and child was dragged along the streets by the car. You will hear lots of disturbing stories about criminals who casually shot and killed anyone trying to resist them, and even those who don’t resist. Brazilians have more or less become accustomed to living in homes with bars covering the windows and security guards in their apartment buildings or businesses. It’s a veritable police state, but in this case, the police are not as competent as in Orwell’s 1984; they often are unable or unwilling to stop the criminals; furthermore, if you get caught in the web of the dishonest ones, they expect you to grease their palm with a bribe. As my mother in law sadly put it, the honest people of Brazil live behind bars, while the criminals walk about freely.

Bureaucracy is another serious problem you will experience Brazil. Most Americans think they have experienced inefficiency, bureaucracy and senseless rules. But I warn you: you do not know the meaning of senseless bureaucracy until you experience Brazil. Take the issue of waiting in lines at the bank. Brazilians pay their utility bills, as well as bills for various goods they purchase (juros) on installment plans, and other bills, such as monthly rent by waiting in lines that circle and zig-zag around the bank and out the door, resembling Russians standing in lines in the former USSR. And like the Russians, the Brazilians know their place: don’t expect to complain to the management; and don’t ask the obvious question most Americans would ask: why can’t you simply avoid hours in lines by mailing your payment, or by doing an online payment? Most people will look at you unsympathetically, get annoyed, or treat you as if YOU are the problem since this is the kind of bureaucratic practice they have grown accustomed to, and think of as natural and inevitable. Even though they have a shorter line for pregnant, elderly and handicapped people, my wife spent much as an hour in lines like this, even while pregnant.

Brazilians are also fond of using Notary Publics. If you are American it is very likely that you have never gone to a notary public in your life to verify that your documents are legitimate. A driver’s license, or passport is generally sufficient proof that you are who you claim as well as simply signing a statement verifying that what you claim is true, with the understanding that you could be prosecuted in a court if what you say is false. Yet, for some reason, most business or governmental agencies in Brazil require that you visit a notary pubic to get your documents verified. This involves taking a number, and getting in line with dozens of other people like yourself. Then after waiting and waiting, they call your number, you present your documents to some quasi-official looking young man dressed in a suit, who takes your documents to a back room where you imagine he is running your documents through some sophisticated state-of-the-art database, scanning, cross-checking and verifying them with other government agencies and law enforcement databases throughout the country, but in fact, when I asked about this, most Brazilians suspect the guy plops down lazily in a chair, has a cigarette and a coffee break, then comes back 30 minutes later, shuffles your papers, still examining them quite seriously, and then stamps your documents with the King’s seal and charges you an exorbitant fee for the service. This is relevant information if you plan to move to Brazil and apply for working papers. Take my case as an example. Although my wife and I got married in the US, it took over 2 years and countless trips (I stopped counting after 12) to notary publics, government offices and the Federal Police before I received my working documents. Over two years! This meant that I had to pass up several reasonably good teaching positions that required working documents, and instead, resort to hanging signs at bus stops to advertise English classes and work as a part-time private tutor. By the time I received my working documents, we were already planning our return to the US. I struggled to find work during my entire time there, and in the process spent my entire savings which took years to accumulate in the US. The Federal Police were either indifferent or very unsympathetic to our problems; during the two year period, they needed to finger print me on two different occasions. Why I needed to make two separate visits to their office for duplicate fingerprints is a mystery to me. Likewise, at one point we needed to bring various documents to them, but they couldn’t tell us over the phone what these documents were. No, that would be easy and reasonable: so we had to make the long trip to their office, wait in line, then read the list of documents, then travel home again to get the documents, then back another day with the documents. They even visited us at home and interviewed my wife and checked out our apartment. On one occasion they had my wife (who was pregnant) in tears demanding copies of some relatively meaningless paper (items to declare) that we received on the flight entering Brazil but had tossed in the trash later when home. I don’t know why the original was not sufficient. They demanded to see our copy, which only added to the crushing Kafkaesque absurdity of the situation. While many people living abroad cannot forget the wonderful places they visited and people they met, one enduring memory from by time in Brazil was long exhausting hours and hours spent on long bus rides with my pregnant wife, and waiting then for hours repeatedly in notary publics, government bureaucracies, and the office of the Federal Police.

After living in Brazil one year, it was crystal clear to me that Brazil had little to offer our family, and we would have left, but since my wife previously had studied in the US, she needed to pay back the government for supporting her studies abroad, which involved a visa restriction that required her to stay in the country a minimum of 2 years, supposedly to pay back the government, despite the fact that she, like many other well-educated Brazilians, could not find work in Brazil! Hence, for the entire 2.5 years in Brazil, we slowly used up all of our savings.

An interesting contrast to this is my wife’s experience with getting her working documents for the US. We went to the Brazilian consulate one time and in less than one hour, received a temporary version of the documents that would allow her to work in the US. In less than two weeks, my wife received her Social Security card (working document) as did my son who was 2 years old, mailed to them from the US. My son and wife almost immediately received their working documents for the US, while I was in Brazil for two year and had already given up on surviving there by the time I received mine.

I should also mention that while such bureaucracy is common for many foreigners, Brazilians have a special policy they call “reciprocity” which they like to apply to Americans. This policy really picked up momentum after Brazilians traveling to the US began to complain vehemently when searched in American airports after 9/11. Brazilians seemed to feel they were being picked on and singled out more than other nationalities. It seemed kind of ridiculous and self-centered for them to conclude this. They didn’t seem to realize that Americans as well as others are subject to such practices to maintain safety. They seemed to be only whining about their own inconvenience even though these safety precautions were designed to keep them and others safe. So in retaliation, Brazilians quietly, and not so quietly exact their pound of flesh on Americans in Brazil: you will see that when Brazilians yield power over you, no matter how trivial, be prepared for many who love to lord it over you in a petty and spiteful manner. While you may never dream of doing such an ugly thing to a foreigner in the US, you will see it quite often in Brazil. Yet, if there really was genuine reciprocity between our nations, Brazil would have millions of Americans living there illegally and legally, owing homes and property, and welcomed and thriving and making far more money than they could make for comparable work in the US.

In addition to the bureaucracy issues, you will have to consider countless quality of life indices that are generally below the US and other developed nations. Forget the images they peddle of Brazil in travel brochures: the rivers and lakes are poisoned with raw sewage, and carcinogenic pollutants, the beaches and parks are strewn with trash and broken bottles, the air quality in cities like Sao Paulo and Rio is ghastly. Traffic is a nightmare in cities like Sao Paulo, and even authoritarian practices of banning driving on certain days for drivers with odd or even numbered license plates to reduce traffic and pollution have not solved the problem of excessively long waits in gridlocked traffic. Over 60, 000 drivers are killed yearly on roads in Brazil: many of the drivers drive so fast and recklessly, resulting in a yearly fatality rate, equivalent to the total number of American soldiers killed in the entire seven years in Vietnam, or 3-4xs the US yearly auto fatalities despite that we have far more drivers and cars. Forget about sending your children to a good public school or to a good public library: as far as I could see, they don’t exist. Even finding a well cared for public park is a challenge as most are trashed and neglected, except for a few serving the wealthy areas and towns.

Also, be prepared for cultural differences that may seem strange or offensive to you, despite the claims that Brazil is not racist. On the streets, it is not uncommon for Brazilians to refer to alll Asians as Japa (Japanese) despite that this is offensive to someone who is Chinese or Korean. Likewise all fair skinned northern Europeans are referred to as Aleman (Germans), all middle-eastern people of muslim cultures (Egyptians, Lebanese, Turks, Morocans, Iraqis, Iranians, Pakistanis, Saudis) are lumped together as Turcos (Turks), anti-semitism is intense, and blacks, who disproportionally make up the poorest segment of the poor, disproportionally do lower skilled work as nannies, or cleaning ladies, and are commonly referred to by Brazilians as monkies. Gays are also despised: the number of fatal attacks on gays is the highest per capita in the world in Brazil. It is an intensely macho culture, and women’s rights are limited: the anti abortion movement has been described as the most hostile and vehement in the world by activist trying to change it.

So my question would not be “plan to grow your money in Brazil?” but rather, as we say up North, are you prepared to have your “balls busted” (a demanding or punishing experience) on a regular basis? This is the more likely experience you will have trying to run a profitable small business in Brazil.

I suppose, if you come to Brazil to work for a multinational company and live in an exclusive guarded compound, you may find Brazil appealing despite the issues mentioned above. It could be a lucrative position for you if you are paid in Brazil as you would be paid in the US since the cost of living is significantly less in Brazil. I have heard there is some kind of American community in Brazil, comprised of both wealthy capitalists, professionals and salesmen working for multinationals who I suspect are indeed “growing their money” there, yet this life seems sterile and artificial, restricting you to living in an apartheid-like separation from the majority of working class, middle class, and poor Brazilians. Also, this is typically the class that lives parasitically off of the mass of desperately poor and exploited people of Brazil. Hence, I have no advice or concern with whether this group “grows” their money or not in Brazil.

On the other hand, if you are an ordinary middle class American wishing to buy a hotel, restaurant, or open a school, you should be prepared for the likelihood that you will make little or no profits, as well as encounter much of the trouble I mentioned above. If most Brazilians who operate a posada can’t earn a living, why would it be easier for an American? It’s not. If you are a young student just wishing to travel and visit a new culture and understand Brazil, you might consider teaching English there. Likewise if you are going with some progressive political organization working in support with groups serving the poor, you will likely find it an excellent opportunity to do some good in the world, but you certainly are not going to “grow your money”. Whatever you do there, you should be as fluent as possible in Portuguese. This is not a society that has much patience for those who do not speak the language: be prepared for the occasional stranger to laugh mockingly and openly at you for not speaking the language well. But anyone else, say with a family, hoping to survive or make a living in Brazil, I recommend that you think very carefully about such a move.

Anonymous, if I had you in front of me, I would buy you a beer.
My brazilian wife has begged me many times to do what you tried.
Now I can show her and it is so specific. The situation is so similar and she even suggested that I could teach English there or start a restaurant or posada.
I have been putting the breaks on it, and now your story is so objective that I can put this matter to rest.
Maybe some day I will visit the country for pleasure.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

Thanks Ernesto, if my story helped just one person think about it before jumping in, then I am really pleased. Thanks for offering that beer! Just that thought of it, makes me feel like I am enjoying right now. I expect more angry responses from Brazilians, but I am glad to hear at least one person who can at least hear what I have to say. I think you have the right idea: visit for vacation, and get an idea of whether it is worth it for you to live there. You might enjoy traveling around seeing the country, but I just don't think you are going to "grow your money there".

Ernesto: I should also mention that I taught English to a professor of Economics from the University of Sao Paulo. He told me that among Brazilians, it is a popular belief that you can get rich or make a lot of money by opening a posada. It is the most popular small businesses that people try in Brazil. Yet, he told me, that his students were always shocked to find out that the great majority of posadas fail after a year or two. Now, I am sure you might get a few people responding here telling how they are a very successful posada owner, but again, I would say do a little research and take those stories "with a grain of salt" as we say up North.