Скачать или смотреть Why Brazilians Pay 300% Interest (The Debt Prison)

In most countries, 30% annual interest on a credit card is considered predatory. In Brazil, it's a bargain.
The average Brazilian credit card charges over 300% APR. Some reach 400%. These aren't illegal loan sharks—these are mainstream banks, regulated institutions, publicly traded companies. And they've been charging these rates for decades while posting some of the highest profit margins in the global banking industry.
This video exposes the debt prison that traps millions of Brazilians in a cycle of permanent financial servitude. We explain how the system works, who benefits, and why nothing ever changes despite decades of complaints, lawsuits, and political promises.
We start with the numbers that shock foreigners: credit card rates that make payday loans look reasonable, overdraft fees that double debts in months, consumer finance products designed to extract maximum value from minimum-wage workers. We trace the flow of money from struggling families to bank shareholders and show how the spread between what banks pay for money and what they charge customers has remained astronomical even as Brazil's benchmark interest rate has fluctuated.
We examine the structural factors that create this system: bank concentration that eliminates competition, regulation that protects incumbents, a legal system where collecting debts is so difficult that lenders front-load costs onto everyone, and a cultural acceptance of parcelamento (installment payments) that obscures true costs. We show how the "12x sem juros" (12 interest-free installments) that Brazilians love actually builds interest into prices, making everyone pay more whether they use credit or not.
We investigate the political economy of Brazilian banking: why governments of left and right have both failed to reform the system, how bank lobbying shapes legislation, and why even central bank presidents who denounce spreads can't change them. We examine the Pix revolution and whether digital payments and fintech competition might finally crack the cartel.
This is the story of a financial system designed to extract wealth from those who have least. Understanding it reveals something fundamental about how inequality perpetuates itself—and why developing countries so often remain trapped even when the macro numbers improve.
📊 In this video:
Interest rates that shouldn't exist in a functioning economy
The spread explained: where the money goes
Bank concentration and the cartel problem
Why collecting debt is so hard in Brazil
Parcelamento culture: the hidden interest
"12x sem juros" and the price everyone pays
The rotativo trap: how credit cards eat income
Brazilian banks: most profitable in the world
Failed reforms: why nothing changes
Political economy of banking power
Pix and fintech: can technology break the system?
What other countries do differently
Policy solutions that could actually work

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💬 Brazilians: share your experiences with the banking system. Foreigners: what are interest rates like in your country? Let's compare in the comments.
📚 Sources include Banco Central do Brasil data, bank earnings reports, consumer protection studies, and academic research. Full bibliography in pinned comment.
💳 Related video: How the American Credit Score System Works (coming soon)
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