NEWS/BLOG

Happy Holidays

Wherever you are!

And a reminder that it’s not too late to make a donation in honor of someone through Alternative Gifts International. A modest sum can help provide wholesome meals in Haiti, empowerment of girls in Tibet, microloans in Northern Uganda or help for the hungry and homeless in the U.S. These are just a few of the possible gifts. For more, go to www.alternativegifts.org/projects/.

A Brazilian Oprah?

Emerging market countries may be whistling while Rome or, for that matter, the rest of Europe, burns. Meanwhile, countries like Brazil (well, there’s no place quite like Brazil), are spawning their own middle class consumers as the poor climb the social and economic ladders.

Recently Brazil’s top news story hasn’t been about its economy or Europe’s but about their most popular nightly news program, Jornal Nacional (JN). The show reaches 30 million viewers and is responsible for a huge chunk of the network’s $7.2 billion in revenue. What’s really of interest to Brazilians is that the show’s attractive, charismatic Fátima Bernardes, its co-anchor and reporter since 1987, says she is leaving to launch a career in daytime television.

Not much is is known about her new show, which will debut on Globo TV in April, but most likely it take advantage of the popularity that she has achieved. Blogger and TV critic Daniel Castro has suggested, “Globo’s aim is to transform Bernardes in Brazil’s answer to Oprah Winfrey.”

Globo is striving for viewers outside of Brazil. A huge network, second only to Mexico’s Televisa, Globo is known for its telenovelas or soaps, which are shown in other Portuguese-speaking countries and are dubbed in Spanish for viewing in Latin Americal.

It seems that Bernardes’ only drawback to international visibility is that her native language is Portuguese, a beautiful language, but one that not many people speak or learn. Can a talk show be dubbed? Would subtitles suffice? Well, let’s see.

Steal Like a Banker and Live Abroad!

I have to credit MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends for this idea. Arends, who also writes about personal finance for The Wall Street Journal, commented first of all on how Wall Stree Bankers have gotten away with, well, stealing.

Wall Streeters gamble, and gamble big, with other people’s money. He writes, “It’s not stealing if you get away with it. And because you — or your cronies — write the laws, you get away with everything.” He points out that the top 10 at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers pocketed almost $1 billion before their banks went belly up.

The Center for Responsive Politics says that financial firms have already given $122 million in campaign contributions for 2011-12. If you don’t think Congress has been bought by Wall Street, see what Sixty Minutes had to say on November 16. Did you know members of Congress are exempt from insider trader laws?

But, Arends says, the Occupy folks could beat Wall Street at its own game, and it’s fortunate they haven’t considered this because they could create real chaos. Most of them already have the ammo in their own pockets: it’s their credit cards!

Here’s where living abroad comes in. Arends says they could take their plastic, get as much cash as they can and go to the Bahamas. I’m not sure I agree with the Bahamas as a destination, but you get the idea. If the typical occupier is 26 and unemployed, as he suggests, it might not be a bad idea. If thousands did it, they would make a far bigger statement than with camping outdoors in freezing weather, and they’d have more fun.

What of the consequences of defaulting on credit card debt? It might not be a good idea if you’ll need a home loan anytime soon. However, U.S. bankruptcy laws are “crazy,” as Arends says, “You can shelter all sorts of money in things like 401(k) plans and still walk away… .They are in a word, as immoral as Wall Street. They let borrowers treat Wall Street the way Wall Street treats everyone else.”

Is it going to happen? I doubt it and I think Arends does, too. He wrote this as a tongue-in-cheek political statement not as financial advice. It’s not the financial advice I’d give to young prospective expats either, and I wouldn’t want to see more havoc in the country’s financial system. What’s more, I think most of the Occupiers are honest people who wouldn’t max out their credit cards with no intention of repaying. But we haven’t seen the end of the Occupy movement, and who says they couldn’t be plotting their strategy from a sunny beach somewhere? What’s needed is some well thought out strategy to bring about change that really benefits the 99%.

To see Arends’ complete article, go to How to Steal Like Wall Street.

Reading for a Global Perspective

We’re still waiting for major changes at our website, and looking for items to feature in our store. So far, we’re considering books and videos. Keep sending us your suggestions, and keep checking back to see what’s new.  Also please note that message board postings or blog comments that advertise sites or services are being deleted.

As for books that may provide insights about the expat experience, I’ve chosen several. One I strongly recommend is Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, which takes place in Brazil, not the Brazil of multicultural mega-cities, but deep in the interior, where a group of researchers, mostly Americans, are investigating plants that appear to have miraculous properties. The author reportedly traveled to this part of the world as research for the novel, which is intricately structured and reaches a masterful ending.

Not as well received as some of her earlier works, A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve is a story of American expats living in Kenya in the 1970s or 80s. Shreve is known for well crafted novels set in New England. This one deals with the strains put upon an American couple living in a foreign country. The husband, a physician, is doing important work, while the wife, who had been a photographer, faces a common problem of expat wives: the need to find meaningful activities to fill her time. The novel is the story of coping with dislocation, regaining strength and overcoming fears.

At the same time contemporary Egypt dominated the headlines earlier this year, many readers were drawn to the new biography by Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra: A Life, and I’ll admit I was one of them. Because so little is really known about the Egyptian queen, the author acknowledges that it’s impossible to know her feelings and motivations. Instead this book, offers a detailed history of her times and some theories as what probably drove her to certain actions. The language here is never dull and is, at times, sparkling. 

Because I happen to like spy stories, I couldn’t resist the real-life account, The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole who Infiltrated the CIA. Author Joby Warrick takes us behind the scenes of the tragic attack that killed CIA Officers, security personnel, a Jordanian Intelligence Officer and an Afghan driver. Warrick doesn’t lay blame or offer anything but known facts, but career ambitions and lack of experience are evident. The triple agent himself is portrayed in such a way that his motivations become clear to the reader, though they eluded these espionage experts. It’s a fascinating story, though a sad one, and I couldn’t help wondering what John Le Carré would have done with the same cast of characters.

The Magician of Lhasa by David Michie is a novel that offers a glimpse into Tibetan Buddhism and recent Tibetan history, which are subjects worth pursuing. The writing is good and the author has an extensive knowledge of these subjects. However, I felt that the plot hinged on a gimmick that would make some readers feel cheated, as I did. Many non-fiction books offer a better alternative for learning about Tibet.

Tell us what you’re reading, or if you’ve written something, tell us about that, too.

Iceland - Back from the Brink

Iceland is a striking example of a country that survived a disastrous financial situation without causing undue suffering to its citizens. Before the 2008 meltdown, it was one of the richest countries in the world. Beginning in 2003, Icelandic banks lured foreign investors with online accounts paying high interest rates. By 2007, the bank’s debt was a whopping 900 times the country’s GNP.

When disaster struck, the government fell and the new government was ready to give in to demands that Iceland pay 3.5 million euros, which would force each citizen to pay 100 euro per month for 15 years at 5.5% interest. The citizens rebelled and simply refused to pay debts incurred by the banks. Foreign governments made dire threats, even suggesting that Iceland was doomed to become the “Cuba of the North.”

Iceland stood firm and refused to accept the doctrine of cutting back on government spending and easing regulations as a way to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Icelanders collaborated in writing a new constitution. First, 25 individuals were elected to oversee the project, which took place on the internet with citizens contributing their comments, proving that electronic media can be a conduit for participatory democracy. Iceland still has problems, but not nearly as many as it would have had propping up failed banks, which was the strategy taken by Europe, Great Britain and the U.S. What’s more, Iceland’s social safety net is intact.

For more on this story, see Why Iceland Should Be in the News by Deena Stryker. (http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/728.1). Also see an editorial by Paul Krugman, The Path Not Taken.

Greek Bonds Get 50% Write-down

European leaders and bankers pulled an all-nighter to reach a solution to the Greek debt crisis. In the end German Chancellor Angela Merkel forged an agreement by “calling the bankers’ bluff,” as The New York Times put it. She told the bankers they could accept a 50% write-down on the Greek bonds or face the consequences of default. Those consequences would be a credit event akin the one triggered by the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and this time the European banks would bear the blame. The bankers agreed to the write-down, and Chancellor Merkel has been widely praised for her strength and leadership.

The agreement sent global markets soaring the following day. However, more details still need to be worked out in Europe. In the markets, although there is somewhat more optimism, uncertainty still rules. 

The Tempestuous Market

With the European debt crisis rocking global markets, staying in cash is probably the best strategy except for trigger-happy traders who can switch from long to short and back again without batting an eye. For those who’d like some insight into what has happened and is still happening in Europe and the U.S., Michael Lewis has a new book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World.

For those who haven’t read Michael Lewis, it’s worth noting that much of this book was published in Vanity Fair, and that Lewis is a born story teller who spins one good yarn after another rather than engaging in difficult economic analysis. Perhaps, too, some of his explanations of mistakes made by Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Germany (with an additional chapter on California) are oversimplified. As he travels through Europe, he tries to describe the national character of each country and weaves this into his explanation of the economic ills.

An earlier blog post questioned whether the euro would survive. Interestingly, Lewis points out that the euro was designed to knit European countries together and to prevent Germany from becoming too powerful. The result, however, has been considerable wrangling among European countries as well as a stronger Germany than anyone could have anticipated. German financial firms did make mistakes: they bought what U.S. financial firms were offering.

Ireland’s property market soared to unheard of heights only to crash brutally. Lewis mistakenly writes that Ireland has never lured international buyers. Now though, Ireland has plenty of homes at rock-bottom prices.

Lewis’s latest book won’t help in finding a home in Ireland or elsewhere, but it can add to our understanding of the places he visited and their economies. Anyone who thinks books about economic topics are boring hasn’t read Michael Lewis.

Guatemala Opts for Strong Military

Otto Pérez Molina, a conservative former general garnered the most votes in Guatemala/s presidential election Sunday, Sept. 11, but hasn’t yet been declared the winner. For that he’d need 50% plus one more vote, so a runoff election will be held in November.

Molina, whose campaign symbol is an iron fist, favors a strong military as the solution to Guatemala’s problems, a view shared by the other presidential contenders. The drug trade here has fueled crime and corruption, and many people view the army as better able to serve justice than the police or the courts.

Oddly enough, Molina’s military past seems not to bother voters here; in fact, many believe the army is the only solution to the severe problems the country faces. Today’s army is considerably smaller than during the war years, and is responsible for distributing government aid. Over 60% of the 7.3 million Guatemalans registered to vote are between the ages of 18 and 30. They don’t remember Guatemala’s 36 years of war in which over 200,000 people were killed. Oddly enough, these troubled years are not even taught in schools.

Most likely, Guatemala will rely upon its army to combat the corruption resulting from the drug trade. This is a path that Mexico chose to follow, resulting in thousands of drug related deaths.

Don’t Forget Venice

Although you’ll hear dozens of reasons to skip this often visited city, we found some tips on enjoying Venice inexpensively at journeywoman.com from Jessica Spiegel, a Portland-based travel writer for www.BootsnAll.com.

If you’re planning a fall, spring or even winter visit, so much the better. You may also want to avoid Carnevale.  Spiegel notes that most travelers move along one well-traveled route, so she advocates turning and walking onto a street perpendicular to the main one, being careful not to walk into a canal, of course. Since there’s not a lot of nightlife, one can stroll the quiet streets after dark. Early morning is an excellent good time to wander and explore.

This means booking a Venice hotel if you can, even if it’s just for a night or two. The neighborhoods she prefers are Dorsoduro and San Polo, both across the Grand Canal from St. Mark’s and the train station. Even less costly stays are offered in the Cannaregio neighborhood, to the north and east of the train station, and she assures us that it’s not “dodgy or noisy.” She notes, too, that some travelers stay on the Venetian mainland, Mestre, and go back and forth by bus or train. A day-tripper, Speigel says, misses much of what Venice has to offer, especially late at night and early in the morning.

Eat well for less by avoiding the touristy places. A morning visit to the Rialto fish markets will let you see what the fresh catch is that day. Venice offers cicchetti – small tidbits like tapas which can make a tasty lunch or a very light dinner. You’ll find cicchetti bars away from the main tourist route and they may be full of locals.

Don’t miss a visit to St. Mark’s Basilica. which Spiegel says is the top activity on her agenda when she’s in Venice. Long lines in summer can mean waiting an hour or more, but you can reserve an entry time in advance. See
www.alata.it/eng/BOOKING/sanmarco.asp.

For more on Venice, see www.journeywoman.com/girltalk/italy/10HintsFallinLoveWithVenice.htm.

Proxy Moxy!

If you’ve been tossing out the proxy materials generated by your investments, consider getting them electronically. Then consider actually voting. Take back the “public” in public companies. You can support causes you believe in such as the environment, fair executive compensation, fair labor practices, diversity in the workplace and more. A recent update states that although women comprise 46% of the workforce, women comprise only 11% of Fortune 1000 corporate board members! To sign up for updates and start voting online, go to www.moxyvote.com. 

The Desert of Forbidden Art

The highly acclaimed documentary film, “The Desert of Forbidden Art,” featuring Edward Asner, Ben Kingsley and Sally Field, has inspired both group and private travel to Uzbekistan to see the Savitsky Collection. The art is at the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art. Travel is sponsored by MIR Corporation, which offers both group and private travel options.

Travelers visit a hall containing hundreds of works by artists working in styles that were considered subversive under Stalin. Concern for these works prompted art cognoscente, Igor Savitsky, to move thousands of avant-garde paintings to Uzbekistan. He also collected artifacts of the steppe, and the museum now has one of the largest collections of archeological objects and folk, applied and contemporary art originating in Central Asia.

MIR Corporation, based in Seattle, has developed itineraries to bring travelers to this unique museum as well as exploring Uzbekistan and other Central Asian destinations. MIR, whose name means “peace” and “world” in Russian, has 25 years experience, specializing in Russia and neighboring countries since 1986. It is the first American company to have offices in Uzbekistan, and has twice been named one of National Geographic Adventure’s “Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth.”

For additional information about travel, contact MIR at 800/424-7289 or visit www.mircorp.com/nukus_savitsky_museum.asp.

Changes, a Warning and More Books

We’re making some changes at our website and would like your input and suggestions. Although you can still obtain copies of our newsletter by writing to us, our back issues page will be converted to a “store” and we’d like your suggestions as to what kind of store. What would you like to buy - books, maps, DVDs or something else? Also, if you have a product that you believe would be appropriate for us, let us know. We’ll give consideration to any serious suggestion. Just hit reply.

Note that in our “Updates from All Over,” we have an important warning about tax reporting on overseas bank accounts. Read it to stay out of trouble!

Now for more notes on books:

I wasn’t looking for books about expat living when a friend recommended Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. While it may not have a lot to offer today’s expats, it answers some questions I’d had for a long time about what happened in Germany before and during World War II. What were ordinary people thinking? What did they know? The story here is told by Trudi Montag, a dwarf, who is smart, spunky and a busy-body who makes everybody else’s business hers. Her village has Catholics, Protestants and Jews living side by side; some are tolerant and accepting of differences, while others are not. Their differences are more pronounced after the war begins and Hitler’s policies are put into practice, and only a few are brave enough to risk their lives to save others. It’s far more that a story of politics and war, however, as we see Trudy grow up and try to have a life that’s nearly normal. This is fiction based on reliable insight: the author spent the first 18 years of her life in Germany. For those who’d like a faster moving story, there’s Eric Larson’s non-fiction In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin which I happened to discover while looking for new books. More on this next time.

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray isn’t about expat living at all, but it takes the reader to world few of us know. I’d never heard of the author when I read about the book in the NY Times Book Review. The accompanying photo showed a young woman who looked as though an ivy league education might have been her birthright. When I finally go my hands on the book, I was struck, too, the photo of her mother, who, I soon learned, was an addict, as was her father. Miraculously, these parents stayed together during the early childhood years of Liz and her sister, and despite drug habits, seemed to love their children. Once the family breaks up, Liz is in a group home only long enough to decide that she’d prefer living on the streets. Her only priority is survival during several painful years, but at 17 she sees education as her only hope, and with a determinations that is mind-boggling, puts herself on an accelerated schedule for finishing high school. I’m not a great fan of inspirational stories, but I found this one truly impressive.

I thought that Cristina Garcia’s The Lady Matador’s Hotel would be the ideal expat novel, though the nude on the cover might be off-putting to those who read old-fashioned printed books in public places. The hotel here is a luxury property in the capital of an unnamed Central American country. The title character is a Japanese-Mexican-American matadora. We also meet a waitress with a history in guerilla activities, a colonel who has committed atrocities in the country’s civil war, a Korean industrialist with an underage pregnant mistress plus serious labor relations problems, a European adoption attorney engaged in baby trafficking and a Cuban poet with an American wife hoping to adopt a baby. It’s a colorful bunch, to say the least. There’s action and suspense, yet I was disappointed in this highly acclaimed work because I wanted more detail about these initially fascinating characters and their motivations than the author provides.

Then I discovered a novel by Julia Glass that I hadn’t read: I See You Everywhere. Picking it up was like encountering an old friend who is witty and fun yet very wise and sensitive. I don’t have any sisters, but reading this helped me understand, in heart-breaking detail, what having one might be like.

Warning to U.S. Citizens with Overseas Bank Accounts!

You may have heard that the IRS is cracking down on U.S. citizens and U.S. expats avoiding taxes by hiding money overseas. The key tool they are using is called the Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Form aka the “FBAR.” This form requires Americans with overseas bank accounts with aggregate balances of over $10,000 to file a special disclosure with the U.S. Treasury Department each year. If they fail to file this disclosure, the IRS can levy fines starting at $10,000 per year up to 50% of the account balance for each year the account is not reported. Penalties can also include jail time. U.S. expats, although not necessarily the primary target, can be caught in the crossfire, and the penalties can be painful!

Americans living overseas are required to both file their U.S. expat taxes and to report their foreign bank accounts to the U.S. Treasury. These are two different things and, unfortunately, your hometown CPA may not be familiar with the FBAR, and it is often a misunderstood topic among expats.

* The FBAR is also known as form TDF 90-22-1, and you need to send this to the U.S. Treasure by June 30th each year.
* Your U.S. expat taxes, on the other hand, are due by June 15 (although if you owe money, interest starts accruing as of April 15).
* The FBAR reports any foreign bank accounts you have or you control, including personal accounts, joint accounts, business accounts, potentially retirement accounts you control.
* Unlike your U.S. expat taxes, your FBAR will not cost you anything – it is just an informational report. You can have $10,000,000 overseas, no problem, just report it.

At the moment the U.S. government is working hard to find individuals who are not in compliance with the FBAR requirements or up to date with their U.S. expat taxes. Currently the IRS target is accounts with balances over $50,000, but this can change at any time. Foreign banks are now required by U.S. law to report Americans who have accounts with them to the IRS – this was part of a huge lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against Swiss banks and resulted in UBS paying the government about $780 million for selling accounts to individuals where they could hide the money from the IRS. If you have foreign accounts open and are behind on your U.S. expat taxes, the IRS can now find you. In fact, your bank may voluntarily turn you in!

It has recently been reported that the Justice Department is now looking at potentially extending the FBAR penalty to the financial institutions that are helping U.S. citizens and U.S. expats avoid taxation. This new approach by the Justice Department could put the financial resources of the overseas institutions at risk. It remains to be seen whether or not the U.S. Justice Department can legally charge the banking institutions that helped the American taxpayers avoid disclosure, but just the threat of it shows how seriously the U.S. Government is treating tax cheats.

So, if you are behind on your U.S. expat taxes or you didn’t know you needed to file the FBAR, what should you do?

It really is not unusual for an American living abroad to be behind on his/her U.S. expat taxes. As espats, we don’t get blasted with dozens of tax service TV commercials every day and we don’t hear our neighbors complaining about U.S. expat taxes, so it’s easy to miss the deadlines. Fortunately, the IRS is currently running its second Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (OVDI), which was launched in February of 2011 and runs through August 31, 2011.

The OVDI gives American who previously failed to report their foreign bank accounts and/or are behind on their U.S. expat taxes the chance to come clean, pay a reduced penalty and avoid criminal prosecution. This is the second and potentially last Voluntary Disclosure program the IRS will offer. While the terms are not as good as the first voluntary disclosure program the IRS launched in 2009, anyone who has still not come forward should treat this as a golden opportunity!

The key points regarding the 2011 OVDI are as follows:

* 25% penalty on the amount in the foreign accounts
* You must pay back-taxes and interest for up to 8 years.
* You must file back-tax returns or amended returns properly disclosing your income and accounts.
* Everything is due by August 31, 2011.
* You may qualify for a lower penalty of 12.5% if your aggregate accounts did not exceed $75,000.
* There are options for even a more reduced penalty of 5% as well.

If you are behind on your U.S. expat taxes or if you are current, but did not file your FBAR, you should take advantage of the OVDI and get caught up before August 31, 2011!

This article was prepared by Greenback Expat Tax Services. See their ad on our classified page or go to greenbacktaxservices.com/

São Paulo Means Business

Brazil is now the model other Latin American countries choose to follow. Brazil is making impressive strides in wiping out poverty, but make no mistake, social programs here are rooted in prosperity rather than ideology. Brazil knows how to get down to business.

Although Brazil has a number of large, prosperous cities, none are quite as impressive as the city of São Paulo, the capital of the state of the same name, which is Brazil’s most populous state. São Paulo is the second most populous city in the Americas and is among the five largest metropolitan areas in the entire world.

São Paulo is a major center of commerce and finance (it is home to the second largest stock exchange in the world) as well as arts and entertainment. It has many museums, theaters and concert halls. It also has the largest shopping center, the largest hospital complex and the most billionaires in Latin America. It is responsible for over 12% of Brazil’s GDP and 36% of all goods and services of the State of São Paulo. More than 70% of all Brazilian trade fairs and business events are held in the state.

Not only is the city of Sao Paulo an excellent place to do business, it has much to offer those who bring their families to live here. The climate is sub-tropical, which means it is never very hot or very cold. Home might be in an elegant high-rise or in a quiet area of single family houses. Neighborhoods like Morumbi and Moema attract foreigners because they offer ease of getting around the city coupled with a sense of calm and security. Also worth considering are Pinheiros, Perdizes and Butantã, where property values continue to rise. Browsing the real estate ads is a great way to peer inside Brazilian houses and apartments. See www.vivareal.net/buy/brazil/sao-paulo/

The 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil(TM) will increase global awareness of all Brazil has to offer. The race is already on to position oneself to cash in on the many opportunities here, whether in real estate, jobs or services.

Exec Pay Doesn’t Reward Shareholders

Not long ago, The NY Times ran a piece by Gretchen Morgenson about executive pay, “Enriching a Few at the Expense of Many.” Do companies that pay outlandish salaries to their executives perform better for their shareholders? In the U.S., we’ve been led to think that they do, but some experts beg to differ. One such expert is Texas money manager Albert Meyer, who cites some companies that pay their executive proportionally less, yet have fared very well.

For example, Statoil, (STO) a Norwegian energy company paid its chief executive 11.5 million Norwegian krone in 2010 (about $1.8 million at last year’s exchange rate). He received no stock options, but was required to buy shares in the company and to hold them for the next three years. Compare that to ExxonMobil, (XOM) where the CEO received $21.7 million in salary, bonus and stock awards in 2009, (the most recent pay figures available). His pay package is twice what Statoil paid its nine top executives in 2010.

Statoil’s share price has bested Exxon’s since 2001, when the Norwegian company went public. Through March, STO stock rose 22.3% a year, on average, while Exxon increased along at 11.4%. (Note that Statoil is partially owned by the Norwegian government and Exxon receives subsidies from the U.S. government).

Take the Brazilian energy utility CPFL Energia (CPL). The company’s financial statements compare the highest level of executive pay with that of the lowest-paid workers. In 2010, that ratio was 79 to 1. (The ratio for U.S. companies ranges from 100 to 300, depending on the size of the company.) The Brazilian company also discloses how many complaints and criticisms were made during the year and now many were resolved.

Another company Mr. Meyer mentioned favorably was Telefónica, (TEF) the Spanish telecommunications company, which dispenses stock options to employees then buys calls reflecting the number of shares given as compensation to avoid diluting the existing shares. One U.S. company also noted was Phoenix headquartered Southern Copper (SCCO) with mining operations in Peru, Mexico and Chile.

Disclosure: Do your own due diligence. This should not be considered as advice to buy any of the above mentioned securities. I have owned all of the above at various times with the exception of TEF, but have no plans to initiate positions in any of them in the near future.