Posted on 02/27/2014 5:49:54 PM PST by Kartographer
A bon mot doing the rounds in post-commodities-boom South America is that Brazil is in the process of becoming Argentina, and Argentina is in the process of becoming Venezuela, and Venezuela is in the process of becoming Zimbabwe. That is a little harsh on Brazil and Venezuela.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And apparently failed to learn after each cycle.
“And apparently failed to learn after each cycle.”
Absolutely! My original point is that it is a great and wonderful country with a deplorable leader... who will be gone eventually.
Chile *IS* where it is really happening. That and Peru, which is projected to be the 5th fastest growing country in the world in 2014.
I recently sold my business and plan to relocate at least six months out of the year in S.A., starting a business to provide consulting services to students who are coming to the USA to study. I own(ed) an insurance brokerage here in the USA, and have a card file/google contacts list of a bunch of students from Duke (MBA and International law) who have promised me leads to others doing the same. We will see how that goes, but it is still exciting to visit Colombia, Peru, Chile and a number of other countries. Chile especially has 1) a non corrupt police force 2) a completely privatized “interstate” highway system which was back up and running in less than 2 weeks after the recent earthquake (shows what the private market can do) and 3) a national pension system that is INDIVIDUALIZED. You put your funds in a segregated account, invested at your discretion, and it grows with the market. 30 years ago, they gave Chileans a choice between a national pension (like our SS) and a private plan. The national pension of a pool for workers (again, our Social Security) completely collapsed. It has been 30 years now, and the first generation of retirees is going out of the productive system. The average Chilean makes 40% of the USA citizen, but HE NOW RETIRES WITH MORE ASSETS.
I have a bunch of students from Chile as clients and they are sharp as tacks. Sectors of Latin America have a very very bright future, mostly because they laugh at Marxism in the universities there, and our kids have it force fed to them.
Doug Casey, a speculator and libertarian, has formed a community of retirees up in the wine country of Northwestern Argentina. He says that all the crap in Buenos Aires doesn’t really affect them, except to make their dollars go further.
We are thinking along the same lines. Also just sold our businesses.
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