Sources: FT: Brazil resolute on rate rises to calm inflation WSJ: Price of Success in Brazil: $15 Movies IMF: Watching Out for Overheating in Latin America CIA: World Fact Book, GDP Real Growth Rate Over the past few years, Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has steadily increased, going from 3.70% in 2006, to 5.10% in 2008, and reaching 7.50% in 2010, making Brazil’s economy one of the most stable, and the country itself one of the wealthiest in South America and the western hemisphere. However, this success has not come without a price, as Brazil’s cities have become some of the most expensive in the world. The Wall Street Journal reported that Brazilians pay the equivalent of $15 for a movie, which is more than New Yorkers pay. Likewise, the jump in the price of food, transportation, and land has resulted in the inability of millions of poor Brazilians to maintain their standard of living as their income remains unchanged but the price of items continue to rise. One reaso...
Over the years, I've collected my share of free gifts from banks and brokerage firms. These include T-shirts, mouse pads, flash drives, and the most unusual flashlight toolkit . But what is the best gift that you've ever received from a bank or brokerage? To be clear, financial institutions reserve the best gifts for their customers who take a specific action like opening a new account, or making a substantial deposit to an existing account. These gifts are generally much more valuable than a T-shirt or flashlight. Some of the presents that I've claimed in the past include free airline miles, cash bonuses, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and an HDTV set . I have a few PDAs (Palm Tungsten 3, Palm VIIx, and Handspring Visor) that I've received from banks and brokers. Some brokerages like Fidelity offer customers airline miles for opening a new account. I've also opened a couple of credit cards that were offered in conjunction airline mileage programs. ...
The results of PFStock's latest income survey are in. For a while now, I've had an annual income poll in the sidebar of PFStock that asks readers to respond to the question: "How much do you make?" In total, there were 85 responses to this poll. So, here are the latest poll results: How Much Do You Make (April 2011 Results) Annual Income % of PFStock Readers less than $50k 8% $50k-$99k 25% $100k-$149k 27% $150k-$199k 11% $200k-$249k 8% $250k and higher 18% Note that the percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding. From these statistics, I found it interesting that a large percentage of my readers fall into the higher income categories. More than 60% of PFStock readers have an income greater than $100,000 per year. Does anybody have a comment on this statement? The last time that I published annual income survey results was in my July 2010 post on the topic. I also found similar results then. Because the 2011 and 2010 surveys covered different income r...
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