Brazil

Time to look abroad?

*Disclaimer / Disclosure long EWZ and Energea.*

Cheaper than the US

February 19, 2025

The US country market crushed the alternatives in recent years. In a world where the US outperforms international markets, equities outperform credit, and large cap outperforms small cap, all you really need is the S&P 500. Most additional complexity simply costs you money so far this century. One can try to dismiss this as the short-term. But as the short-term becomes the medium-term, it is harder and harder to dismiss. The best companies are big American companies and their equity is the best part of the capital structure. Buy them and go to the beach.

Yet I for one (and the number isn’t that much higher than one) have not given up when it comes to caring about valuation. The US stock market boom has left prices higher than alternatives. From this valuation level, US stocks have historically had a slightly negative total return. Compare that with Brazil which has historically returned about 16% on an annualized basis from current valuations. One way to get exposure to Brazil is via the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ). Its trailing twelve month dividend yield is ~8%. If Brazil reforms the way Argentina did this past year, EWZ could boom.

I also have a small investment in a Brazilian solar project. You can invest as little as $100 to get a $50 sign up bonus. I’m generally a skeptic of intermittent energy projects, instead expecting hydrocarbons to be the backbone of our energy supply for decades until nuclear can take over from there. But intermittent sources have their limited use case — wind energy in very windy regions and solar energy in very sunny ones. Brazil makes sense for solar even if few other regions qualify. It is a small $24 million project, but worth sucking out the sign up bonus if nothing else.

[embed]**Meh. I’ll still take the $50 sign up bonus.**

January 23, 2026

So far, so good

Brazil has done well generally as has EWZ and Energea. Energea is doubling their sign up bonus. In *To Infinity and Beyond *I mentioned some infinite EV opportunities. Add Energea to the list. For the rest of January, they give you $100 when you invest $100. Literally everyone should take this deal every time.