Many investors rarely think about Brazil as a place to put their investment dollars. They think Brazil is just a country that goes crazy over soccer and has a wild ‘Carnival’ every year in Rio. But Brazil is so much more. They may have the best economy in the Americas.

Brazil has made great strides under current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula. Lula took office on January 1, 2003 and he has, since being in office, run a very orthodox fiscal policy. The country has maintained fiscal and trade surpluses for the better part of his presidency.

Brazil’s highly capable central bank has followed a very strong monetary policy. They have maintained high levels of real interest rates, which prevented the economy from overheating and creating an over-expansion of credit – unlike the policies of others like the Federal Reserve.

In late April, the Brazilian central bank

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There has been a lot of chatter lately—since John Bogle dropped his "investors are getting fleeced in ETFs" bomb two weeks ago—that the average Joe just isn't going to do very well in ETFs because he'll be getting in when he should get out, and vice versa.

Well, let's see how the "average" ETF investor did in the month of June. We don't have numbers on how asset flows changed during the last 30 days yet, although our friends at the National Stock Exchange are sure to get us that soon. But what we do know is the bets investors, as a mass of men and women leading lives of quiet desperation, made at the beginning of the month.

As a refresher, here were the assets of leading ETFs at the end of May (in billions of dollars):

 

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Best Economy in the Americas – Brazil

Tony Daltorio, The Investment U Research Team

Wall Street tends to take a very myopic view of the world – the view that the entire financial universe revolves around them and the United States. And that what goes on in other countries is unimportant.

It’s why many Wall Streeters have missed one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories in global economic history – Brazil. Brazil’s economy has gone from a “basket case” to being as solid as a Brick.

Brazil has made huge strides from the very debt-ridden, bureaucratic country of the past. Years ago, the country restructured its finances and has resisted the temptation to use economic crises, such as in neighboring Argentina, as an excuse to default on its obligations.

Yet, many on Wall Street still think of Brazil as a backwards “third-world” country that goes crazy

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The three ETFs have initial portfolios totaling about (U.S.) $41 million in assets.

 

Barclays PLC launched three exchange-traded funds in Brazil on Dec. 2, the first ETFs from the world's biggest ETF manager for the Brazilian market. 

The Brazilian iShares tracks three indexes: 1) the Bovespa Index, which holds the 66 most-traded stocks on the main Brazilian stock exchange; 2) the BM&F Bovespa Mid-Large Cap Index, which holds 69 stocks representing the top 85% of the market capitalization on the Sao Paolo exchange (adjusted for liquidity); and 3) the BM&F Small Cap index, which holds 71 companies representing the bottom 15% of the exchange's market cap.

Brazil is one of Latin America's biggest fund markets, and the Bovespa's profile as a major global exchange, the largest in South America, has been raised in recent years. Barclays Global Investors has plans to significantly expand its ETF staff in its Sao Paolo

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