Newspapers, and financial scenes from Brazil

I'll subject you to just a handful of photos from Brazil, where I've been traveling for Carnival in the beach resort of Florianopolis and, now, in the nation's biggest city, Sao Paulo.

One of the dominant daily newspapers, Folha de S.Paulo, in Sao Paulo, where the metropolitan population is about 19 million. I'm told its circulation may be as low as 400,000, however.

Traffic in the city is so bad that wealthy residents live in skyscrapers with rooftop heliports so they can get about more quickly. I saw this building in the fashionable Jardins neighborhood.

Many better-off Sao Paulo residents live in fear of robbery -- on the street, or at home. It's common to live in high-rise apartment buildings like this one, surrounded by electrified fences, with video cameras and guard shacks limiting access.

Foreign brands, like these Pepperidge Farm cookies, are absurdly expensive. These sell for 12.8 Brazilian Reais a bag -- about U.S. $7.32, based on current exchange rates.

A building downtown houses shops selling wedding clothes -- and illustrates the city's crumbling infrastructure.