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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (33067)	4/14/2008 2:07:57 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217774

I gave up trying to teach you. Thus Lost Case.

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (33067)	4/15/2008 2:43:42 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217774

America's economy is in recession. Don't expect a quick recovery.

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (33067)	4/15/2008 2:55:07 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 217774

Capital Chop-chop: General Motors to build $200M engine factory in Brazil. General Motors Corp. says it will build a new $200 million engine and parts plant in Brazil. The company said in a statement Monday that the new factory in Joinville City will employ 500 people and generate another 1,300 related jobs. GM says the plant should start producing engines in the fourth quarter of 2009. The 60,000-square-meter plant will be able to make 120,000 engines and 50,000 per year. The company says it will have a system that allows engines to be tested without using fuel, eliminating contaminants inside the building. GM didn't say what engines the factory will build. The company's sales have been rising in Brazil's fast-growing market.

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (33067)	4/15/2008 2:57:29 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217774

Brazilians' income is up, but U.S. firms' investments in Brazil aren't 12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 By JIM LANDERS jlanders@dallasnews.com SÃO PAULO, Brazil – The U.S. may be in a recession, but these are the best economic times in Brazil's history. By government estimates, 20 million Brazilians raised their incomes enough to join the middle class in the last two years. Despite this rise in consumer power, American investment here is diminishing. "If U.S. companies want to go to Russia or China and risk their money, that's OK," said Rubens Barbosa, Brazil's former ambassador to Washington. "But U.S. companies are not paying attention to the changes here." The biggest of those changes is the shift of millions of Brazilians from lower to middle incomes. Measured by U.S. standards, this group's average monthly income of $625 per family seems like dressed-up poverty. Lower income averages $340 a month. Yet a recent cover story in Brazil's weekly news magazine, Veja, notes that one in three of these middle-income families has a bank account. One in four has at least one credit card. One in five has a computer. One in 20 has high-speed Internet service. And one in three has a car. Brazil's interest rates are extraordinarily high. Car dealers disguise the impact by advertising car financing by the month, at 0.8 percent or 0.76 percent interest rates. Yet Brazilians talk of the arrival of consumer credit because the new middle class is buying. New cars are hitting the streets at a pace averaging 7,200 a day, or 2.6 million a year. Forty-six percent of Brazilians are now in the middle of the country's income pyramid, with 15 percent counted as upper-middle income or rich. That still leaves 39 percent of the country poor. But low inflation, a sound currency, growth rates averaging 5 percent a year and sustained government investments in schools and teachers are helping Brazilians of all incomes. "We're hoping that we can now move from a developing to a developed country, but it's too soon to know," said São Paulo University engineering professor Kazuo Nishimoto. The improvements are quite a contrast to Brazil's reputation as one of the most unequal countries in the world. Brazil's per capita income – measured against the rest of the world in purchasing power parity – came to $9,700 last year. And more than 40 percent of the country's wealth is held by 10 percent of the population. (In the United States, the richest 10 percent owns 30 percent of national wealth.) The vast favelas, or slums, stacked up the slopes of Rio de Janeiro speak of poverty that looks little changed. But the population has stabilized, and the birth rate is now just 1 percent. The world is paying high prices for Brazil's ore, food, oil and manufactured goods. In turn, more Brazilians are shopping. Companies such as Energy Equipment Resource Inc. of Dallas and TruEnergy Renewable Fuels of Irving are doing multimillion-dollar deals in Brazil. Houston companies such as GE Energy Financial Services, TransOcean Inc. and Noble Energy Inc. are moving toward multibillion-dollar relationships with Brazilian firms. There's room for more – lots more, argues Mr. Barbosa, the former ambassador. "Look at all the new cars and the other new consumer products people are buying," he said. "And we're only just beginning to develop consumer credit."