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These windows of opportunity can be excellent opportunities to double our money. In the case of Brazil we are purchasing a property at a great discount. In effect we can assume that we might well realize a 150% profit over every dollar we invest. For example, if we purchase a condo in Rio de Janeiro for $10,000 - we are in effect purchasing a property with a real value of $25,000 [or more.] Once currencies rates come back into line, the property can be expected to rise to it's real value. In addition, we are buying in a depressed market, or what can be called a 'buyer's market.' This further depresses the current price in real terms, in addition to the opportunity created in currency terms. The Economist recently had very stong and positive bullish comments about Brazils future, despite it's current downturn. Brazil is the largest producer of the so-called third world, and it’s overall potential is absolutely staggering. To give its potential some sort of perspective let’s liken it to Australia, a country which is not considered a third world country by any stretch of the imagination. Australia has a Gross Domestic Product of US$340 million and a human population of 18 million. Brazil has a Gross Domestic Product of US$785 billion and human population of 158 million. Brazil’s economy is 2000 times greater than Australia’s and Brazil has at least two cities whose overall population just within themselves exceeds the entire population of Australia. There is no word to use for Brazil’s size and potential other than staggering. (Anyone who has had several caipirinha, Brazil’s deservedly popular national drink, will surely agree with our assessment.) Offshore Real Estate as Investment I strongly believe that offshore real estate is today the best investment available, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. I believe that the reasons are obvious, and I have stated them before, and I will state them again. Simply put, I believe that governments and their borders and the concept of government and borders are obsolete. We humans are only holding on to these concepts because we have no clear precedent to call forth to guide us. A hundred years from now this will all be quite apparent ~ we will recognize that we live on one planet and that the borders were meaningless constructs. Today, of course this is difficult to accept. The concept of deterritorialization is new, but new things are certainly not without precedent in our evolution, or we'd have had no evolution. When human beings moved from grunting tribalism to the idea of kingdom & empire the idea was new... when human beings moved from monarchy to democracy the idea was new... and of course the idea of a world without borders and/or governments is new, or fairly new, but it is inevitable. We are one species ...despite the fact we often pretend we are not. Two things have ushered us into a world without borders... the end of the cold war and the advent of the world wide web of global communications & commerce. Today it doesn't make a great deal of difference where in the world we are located, we can carry on some types of commerce from anywhere; from an island in the middle of the Caribbean to a sheep ranch in the the Australian outback. A game of global musical chairs has begun, and we are now changing places with people willing to come to America to work for a wage we no longer consider attractive, while we begin to move further afield in search of greener pastures. Many of us are now looking for what might be called a 'life.' Tomorrow, it will make a great deal of difference where we live. But certainly not in the same sense as we now perceive it. Tomorrow we will live where the best real estate exists, where the least crime and repression exists, where population pressures have not decimated the environment and where business is encouraged and not hindered by legislation. We will live there regardless of that place's global location or it's former political posture. If we can now buy an apartment in Rio de Janeiro, a ranch in Argentina (or Uruguay, or New Zealand, or name your spot,) for ten cents on the dollar of what a similar property inside the United States would cost us, and if we can carry on commerce from anywhere we are, how long do you imagine it's going to take your neighbor to realize the very same thing? As Doug Casey put it, "those folks who buy that ranch in Argentina today are going to have grandchildren who will think they were a genius." NASDAQ Down ~ Offshore Real Estate As an Investment For Smart Buyer's How much money should we invest in offshore real estate, how safe is it and where should we buy? It is probably no more risky to buy offshore real estate than it is to invest in the NASDAQ. All markets are cyclical and all investments are a gamble. In the case of real estate, you still own a functional or useful property, if you buy right. In my view that's much better than owning a pile of useless stock certificates. If you own five acres in Boquete you can always grow a garden on it, the secondary uses for paper stock certificates are non-existent, except as a souvenir, to use as kindle, or to wipe up a mess. Real estate endures, they aren't making any more of it, and it has intrinsic value. In this article, we've seen that we can buy it at a significant discount, but we still have to buy smart. Let's discuss that. Buying Smart in Offshore Real
Estate on the next page ~ C
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