Perfect timing

So heart-warming to see yet another survey showing how Sao Paulo has continued climbing up the rankings of the world's most expensive cities (now at number 10). I couldn't have picked a worse time to live here and raise a child, relying on savings in a depreciating foreign currency. London dropped down from 17 to 18. But price doesn't tell the whole story by any means, as this blog has hopefully shown. The quality gap between expensive Sao Paulo and much cheaper cities elsewhere remains almost unbridgeably large - in favour of elsewhere. The quality and price of world cities may once have been somewhat correlated but in the current era of commodities-led globalisation, a worldwide gold-rush, that quaint connection is now completely broken. Number one on the list is Luanda in Angola !

PS: This article in Time magazine adds another note of caution to "booming" Brazil's financial imbalances.