Brazil Takes Off
The following is the first article from our corespondent in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Lula (the nickname of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva) is on a roll. He will complete his second and final term in office next year, basking in adulation both at home and abroad. He was everywhere at Copenhagen, schmoozing with world leaders from China, India, America … anybody who really mattered. He has an 80% popularity rating at home, and, according to Barack Obama, “He’s the man!”
It is hard to see his smiling, round and bearded face at this time of year without thinking about Papai Noel. After all, under his leadership Brazil has finally “emerged”. In spite of the global economic crisis, its economy is booming, its currency and stock markets are near all time highs, and the world is finally paying attention. The Economist magazine recently displayed a cover entitled “Brazil takes off” and the BRIC (Brazil – Russia – India – China) acronym has become one of the foundations of current day economic terminology. The future is even more encouraging: Brazil’s potential for growth in agricultural production is one of the highest n the world (even without damaging more of the Amazon rainforest), and a recent massive offshore oil find called the “presal” holds out the promise of major income flows for many years to come.
Lula's no Papai Noel
It hasn’t been all luck; Brazil’s Papai Noel can indeed claim a great deal of credit. When the former machine operator and his Workers Party came to power in 2002, in spite of fears to the contrary, they sensibly continued the liberal economic policies of the preceding government, but also introduced a range of policies to better the plight of the Brazilian poor. The Bolsa Familia, a monthly allowance to poor families who keep their children in school and their medical inoculations up to date, has been credited with allowing millions of Brazilians to move into the “lower middle class”. Sales of consumer goods, from refrigerators to TVs to small cars have exploded in recent years and the malls are packed this Christmas. To counter the economic crisis, the government has invested billions in affordable housing and infrastructure projects. Brazilians have a sense of pride and confidence about the future that has been lacking until recently (in everything other, of course, than the country’s prowess in football).
And yet … so much of the optimism seems to be based on an illusion. Some of the signs are glaring. This government, like those before it, has made little progress in improving the abysmal state of public education and health care. Violence and crime remain rampant. The favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro at times resemble war zones, with invading police units facing drug gangs armed with equal or superior fire power. Public infrastructure, especially in the north of the country, is totally inadequate and a major impediment to development. Politicians at all levels are assumed to be corrupt. Recent hidden camera footage shown on national television, of politicians stuffing wads of cash from contractors into their underwear and socks, has confirmed existing perceptions (and provided enormous scope for satirists and cartoonists).
Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that Papai Noel isn’t quite the altruistic benefactor he seems to be. What he gives so generously and publicly with one hand, he quietly takes away with the other. Brazil is one of most highly taxed countries in the world. Yes, the expensive toys of the middle and upper class, such as imported luxury cars and large LCD TVs, cost two to five times as much as elsewhere. But, far more importantly, many struggling Brazilians must spend excessive portions of their income on drugs not covered by or available from the public health system, at prices that include some 30-40% of government tax. Likewise many of the basic food items sold in Brazilian shops and supermarkets have prices inflated by excessive taxes.
The poor working Brazilian who needs to buy a fan, stove or refrigerator for his home soon finds another hand in his pocket as well. The good news is that he can buy these items on credit with a small down payment. The bad news is that he will pay effective annual interest rates well in excess of 40%. In a country with stable inflation hovering around 4-5%, an unholy alliance of powerful banks and apparent government indifference has kept interest rates at totally unjustifiable levels, further reducing the limited purchasing power of the average Brazilian. Yes, the Brazilian worker is justifiable proud of his country, but he is also very angry.
Brazil has some of the nicest people, finest music, and most beautiful beaches in the world, but it is a long way from being a paradise, even at Christmas.
Boston Tea Party Revived by the Hoodwinked
Tags: banks, Barack Obama, Boston Tea Party, Business, corporate greed, Democratic supermajority, Great Depression, Halliburton, Massachusetts, Ponzi scheme, tax dollars, Tea Bag Movement, teabagger, unemployment, United States Senate, unregulated business
tea party
The following is an article from our Massachusetts corespondent.
Much has been made in the international press about the recent vote in the state of Massachusetts that killed the Democratic supermajority in the United States Senate. It certainly was a big story. As a Massachusetts resident, I can tell you that I’ve never seen my polling station so crowded. And this is just one year after Democrat Barack Obama swept in with huge popular support in my state. What happened?
To answer that, I must strive to impress upon you the impatience of the American people. Having been saved from the brink of a second Great Depression by our government, they are nevertheless unwilling to sit tight until the economy completes its recovery. They are looking for someone to be mad at and government is a convenient scapegoat.
With unemployment levels appearing to be entrenched at 10%, and underemployment a chronic reality, people are finding it harder to pay their bills and the anger they feel over their fall from fortune has them latching onto something to fight. Remember the Boston Tea Party? I thought you might. Well, there are many here in the U.S. who will put forth the misguided proposition that we have again fallen under the thumb of a monarchy that no longer represents them. Perhaps you have heard of a new phenomenon called the “Tea Bag Movement” that has formed to protest government spending and taxation. What the initiates of this movement fail to recognize is that government is not the root of their problems.
I believe that public outrage over this issue is woefully misplaced. Pulling back the veil, one discovers that the teabagger uprising originated as carefully constructed campaign for an agenda that in fact cares nothing about the middle class. This campaign has been funded by big business interests that have learned how to direct public anger at government rather than where I believe it should truly be focused, which is the unprecedented, gross abuses of power from certain segments of our unregulated business sector. This business sector, with tools like Roger Ailes and his conservative media empire, has become expert at targeting primal human instincts that are easy to exploit. They’ve been able to deflect from the truth and support this deflection with an around the clock cycle of talking heads targeting public the anger. The more they snarl and scream that government is the problem, the more they inflame their underinformed troops. What they won’t report is that the downturn in the economy was not caused by government spending but by unprecedented and unchecked corporate greed.
As the owner of two businesses that exist to make money, I believe in capitalism. But, there has been too much power concentrated into too few corporations in the past decade, and this has led to a downward spiral in the standard of living for the middle and working class. Business is the entity that cuts jobs when it consolidates with other businesses. Business is the entity that continually ships our jobs overseas. Business is the entity that rewards incompetent management with obscene bonuses. Business is the entity in the form of military contractors like Halliburton that squanders our tax dollars in the most corrupt way imaginable with zero accountability for the tax payer to scrutinize. Banks took advantage of us, gleefully, until their ponzi scheme was exposed and fell apart. Our government then had no choice but to grit its teeth and bail the banks out because not doing so would have thrown us into another Great Depression. It looks like we’ve avoided that fate. Unemployment is still a problem, but unemployment is a lagging economic indicator. It’s always the last thing to recover.
In the meantime, life does not stand still. And I believe that government does its best to provide the essentials in an imperfect world with multiple stakeholders and multiple priorities. As imperfect as it may be, government exists to serve people over profit. It’s designed to provide checks and balances. What I call upon government to do is to take that charge seriously. It must address the problem of business consolidations, unchecked power and the nefarious ease in shaping public opinion that has resulted.
- Talking Bollocks, Massachusetts