Don’t borrow money in Brazil

It’s a dead-slow news day in Brazil, so it’s as good a time as any to revisit one of the weirder aspects of life here: the truly crazy rates consumers here pay when they borrow money. We’ve written about this before, but it’s something you almost have to see to believe. For most forms of consumer debt—credit cards, goods bought in installments—borrowers have to pay interest rates as high as 50 percent a year. That goes for everything from televisions to boxes of Easter chocolates at the store. I’m not making that last one up. A correspondent for The Economist found some Easter chocolates available on a 10-month installment plan the other day and it kind of blew her mind, too.