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ECONOMY

What caused Brasil’s Economic Slowdown?

Last week, members of the Landless Workers Movement or MST, occupied 13 regional offices of the Brazilian federal finance ministry to protest the federal government’s new austerity measures. It was one more in a series of union and social movement protests against the way that the Federal Government is handling the economy.  A new research paper  […]

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DEMOCRACY ECONOMY EDITORIAL INTERNATIONAL MEDIA LAVA JATO LAWFARE MEDIA PETROBRAS POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Brasil’s Shock Doctrine

“Only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change.” – Milton Friedman. Brasil is having a horrible 2015; a far less favourable global economic situation, a number of policy misjudgements made early in President Rousseff’s first mandate and rolling scandals that have followed 2014’s election have resulted in flurry of headlines both at home and abroad decrying “Brasil in Crisis” or “On […]

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ECONOMY INTERVIEW Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil

Brasil’s Interest Rate Anomaly

One of the most negative results of Brasil’s much heralded Real Plan, implemented during the Itamar Franco presidency, was the establishment of some of the world’s highest interest rates. Although they were lowered to some extent during the Lula and Dilma presidencies, they remain higher than any other nation in the G20 with the exception […]

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ACADEMIC ECONOMY POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Satisfaction and discomfort: Brasil’s new impasse

The partnership between Brasil Wire and LeMonde Diplomatique Brasil continues with our second shared article, by Dr. Marcio Pochmann, one of Brasil’s most important developmentalist economists. The filters that uphold Brazil’s meritocracy are expressed in social monopolies through education, recommendation networks and relationship circles. Public policies for inclusion are challenging them on several levels, revealing […]

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ECONOMY FOREIGN POLICY UNITED STATES

Why Is The US Government Still Hiding What They Did To Brazil In 1998?

Written by Jake Johnston. Original version published at The Americas Blog by CEPR. Republished with permission. On Sunday, October 4, 1998, as international bankers, investors, finance ministers and officials from the leading multilateral development banks met in Washington for the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, many eyes were looking south, to Brazil. […]

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ECONOMY EDITORIAL INTERNATIONAL MEDIA MEDIA OPINION UNITED KINGDOM

The Economist & Brasil: A Love Story

The Economist holds an unusual position in the Brazilian media landscape, it is frequently featured on front pages of major conservative dailies and has a formal partnership with lone-voice centre-left weekly Carta Capital for reprints in Portuguese. It is hard to imagine the New York Times or Guardian paying the slightest bit of attention to Brazilian equivalent, […]

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ECONOMY OPINION UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Who wants “O Fim do Brasil”?

This article was originally published in Portuguese on the blog of veteran Brazilian journalist Mauro Santayana 01.31.2015. Brasil Wire have chosen to translate and republish the article to add some factual and historical context to the current debate regarding the Brazilian economy in 2015. All views expressed are those of Mauro Santayana      For several months, and especially during […]

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ECONOMY FOOTBALL

Bom Senso F.C. & a battle for the soul of Brazilian Football

In 1992, England’s biggest clubs broke away from the Football League to create their own top-flight division. These clubs realised that with their huge popularity and importance to their respective communities, they were the ones in control and no longer had to defer to a league that did not serve their interests. The result, the […]

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ECONOMY EDITORIAL ELECTION LONGFORM POLITICS

A Phantom Crisis

With election campaigning entering its critical phase you could be forgiven for thinking that Brasil was in the throes of economic meltdown, with foreign reports adding a thin sprinkling of credence to such claims & perception. But by global, or even by Brazilian standards, is it remotely fair to call the current state of the […]

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ECONOMY ESSAY

Blaming the Victim: Brazil’s Adolescent Mass Consumer Market

by Louis Smith Brazil’s internal consumer market is the frequent topic of a lot of hand-wringing and disdain from both the financial media and people living in the country. High costs, poor quality and lack of choice are frequently cited as problems caused the protectionist policies that Brazil has had in place for decades. As someone […]