Portuguese-speaking concierges have of late been much in demand in New York hotels. A record number of Brazilians are floating around the city on shopping expeditions and could do with all the local help possible. The people of a country with one of the most expensive currencies in the world are flocking to a nation where the currency is about as cheap as it has ever been. Adjusting for relative inflation differentials, the US dollar by mid-2011 was at the lowest level against currencies of its trading partners in its floating rate history, which dates back to the end of the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s. ... (full story)