Rob Cheng’s Blog

Solange’s mother came to visit us and we decided to take a quick weekend vacation. Solange searched the map and found Mangaratiba. It is about 70 miles from Rio de Janeiro, but given the condition of the roads and the traffic, it takes between 2-3 hours to drive there. All that said, it was worth it. I have been all over the world, and I would put Mangaratiba up there with Yosemite National Park as one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited in my life. More »

November 9th, 2009 | Category: Brazil, Photos, Slide Show, Travel | Comments (2)

Last Sunday, Solange, Teddy, Jesse and I made the drive to Recreio to visit our friends Katia and Jason Elliott. Recreio is night and day different than the hustle and bustle of Rio and Lagoa. We went to a churrascaria close to their house that also had a small playground for children. The food was great and the kids had a great time playing together. I took a ton of photos with my new camera, mainly of the kids. More »

February 12th, 2009 | Category: Brazil, Jesse, Photos, Slide Show, Teddy | Comments (1)

The Fed announced two months ago that they would drop America’s key interest rate to .25% giving America the unique distinction of having the lowest interest rates in the world. In addition, although Congress is still wrangling, they will soon pass one of the largest spending bills in the history of the nation, wrapped up in a bow and called economic stimulus. Although, it sure smells like pork. These two events have one key thing in common - printing more money. In fact, the United States will begin printing money at an unprecedented rate, not just in the history of our nation, in the history of the world.

Ultimately, I believe these policies will fail. Furthermore, their policies are designed to promote consumption and penalize savings. I refuse to fall into this trap. I believe that saving money is always prudent, and in these economic times, even more so. There in lies the dilemma. If I want to save money, where should I do that? More »

February 8th, 2009 | Category: Brazil, Financial Crisis | Comments (22)

This was a totally impromptu photo session. Solange’s sister, Sandra, came running into the room with a large photography light. Next she started clicking pictures like mad. My and Solange’s hair are both a total mess! We had no idea what we were doing, but we just went with it.

We had a lot of fun, and then I messed around with Paint.net to see how much I could change the feel of the photos. Some of the colors turned out a little different because of the light, and then I downloaded some filters to sharpen and soften the photos for different effects. If you have not tried out Paint.net it is free and it is awesome.

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January 25th, 2009 | Category: Brazil, Jesse, Photos, Slide Show, Teddy | Comments (1)

Of all the things that I have done in my life, I have to say that one of the most emotional and exhilarating experiences is to be present at the birth of your own child. There is just so much spinning inside of your head. What does the future hold? What will he look like? Will everything be OK? And then you look at your wife in a whole different light as well. Then BOOM! Out comes the baby, and the adventure begins. It is hard to hold back tears. More »

December 30th, 2008 | Category: Brazil, Jesse, Slide Show | Comments (13)

This post is called the Double Bubble, because it is clear that there have been two very significant bubbles to ripple through the world in the last 15 years. Just looking at the Dow Jones Industrial average, there is a bubble which begins circa 1995 and bottoms out circa 2003. Immediately after the tech bubble bottoms, a new bubble begins to form, which is the crisis we face today. As has already been discussed in previous blogs, Greenspan intentionally created a second bubble by lowering interest rates after the Tech Bubble popped. More »

December 28th, 2008 | Category: Brazil, Financial Crisis | Leave a comment

We keep on hearing that the current economic crisis is global in nature. That is to say, that each and every country in the world will suffer along with the United States. To be honest, this entire premise seems false to me. Surely there would be winners and losers as this economic crisis unfolds. Plus on top of this, the US is the largest debtor nation in the world. Surely the lenders will survive the crisis better than the debtors.

The chart below takes a peek at the interest rates around the world. The first thing that I notice is that there is a huge spread in interest rates from various countries. Their appears to be high interest rates in countries that are expanding such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. And then the balance of the countries have extremely low interest rates such as Japan, US, Europe and Great Britain. This chart is critical for understanding the economic crisis since artificially low interest rates are the root cause of the bubbles. More »

November 23rd, 2008 | Category: Brazil, Financial Crisis | Leave a comment

I really love living in Brazil. One of the major reasons are the many fruits that can only be found in Brazil. Here is my list of favorites:

1. Agua de Coco. This is the water inside of the coconut. After I run in the morning, I drink about 1.5 liters of agua de coco during the cool down period. It tastes so good. Plus it is very good for you. Agua de coco is high in sodium and pottasium, and very low in calories and fat. When in the United States, I could not find agua de coco anywhere, so I usually drink GatorAde or PowerAde. I actually think that agua de coco is a superior and natural energy drink. It sounds corny but agua de coco truly quenches my thirst, where as GatorAde just satisfied the thirst. Here’s my tip for agua de coco. Never drink at room temperature. It must be cold and the colder the better. More »

November 22nd, 2008 | Category: Brazil | Comments (3)

Here’s a trick that I figured out to speak Portuguese with less of a foreign accent. It goes back all the way back to elementary school. Do you remember when you were learning your vowels, and we learned that there are 5 vowels and each vowel has two sounds, long and short?

Well in Portuguese (and also in Spanish), each vowel only has one sound. So therefore, rather than 10 vowel sounds in English, Portuguese and Spanish only have 5. The trick if you are an English speaker is to throw out the other vowel sounds because they do not exist in Portuguese. See the table below. More »

November 6th, 2008 | Category: Brazil | Comments (2)