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Headlines : InternationalAn Interview with Brazil's Lula
Hugo Chavez gets too much attention. Brazil’s premier, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has mixed party politics with some compromises to make some major reforms and be a counter-weight to Washington in this part of the world. Can he keep it up?
[Posted By atrain]Republished from the Economist
THE press says he’s shed 14 kilos (30lb). His aides confirm more than ten. But there is no doubt about the improvement in the political fitness of Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Last year, Brazil’s worst scandal in a dozen years nearly finished him. The polls now predict his victory over likely rivals in next October’s presidential elections. Lula does not admit to being a candidate: he may wait until June to declare himself, while his main rivals must leave their current jobs by next month. Yet his frenetic trips around the country inaugurating crowd-pleasing public works make his intentions plain.
Why is he now likely to win? Speaking to The Economist in a rare interview, Lula cited over and over what he regards as his twin triumphs: economic stability plus social progress. “How many countries have achieved what we have: fiscal responsibility and a strong social policy at the same time?” he asks. “Never in the economic history of Brazil have we had the solid fundamentals we have now.” Brazil is ready for “a leap in quality”, he says.
Such a leap is what Brazil—a country with a population (186m) equal to that of the whole of the rest…
Posted by atrain
Ari Paul has written for The American Prospect, In These Times, Tikkun, Z, Punk Planet, openDemocracy.net, Reason and other newspapers and magazines. He is also a reporter for The Chief-Leader, a New York weekly covering labor in the city.
Kevin Danaher’s 50 Years is Enough has an excellent article on how the IMF and the World Bank destroyed Brazil’s economy. Not something The Economist would mention but certainly not the sort of thing that should go unmentioned.
I had a hard time understanding from this article just what is going on. Can someone restate it in a nutshell for me?
This points to the Lula government’s blind spot. The rise in the minimum wage is symptomatic of an overall increase in government spending, one of the main reasons debt, taxes and interest rates are so high. Non-financial spending by the federal government rose from 17.7% of GDP in 2002 to an estimated 18.8% last year, says Raul Velloso, a budget expert.
Goddamn Economist. They can’t get off pushing their neo-liberal agenda. Does it even matter to them that millions of people are less hungry than they were when lula took over???
restatement.
lula tried to do some very agressive reforms. which were unworkable. he is sitting on the largest human labor pool in the south americas and a country that, by all rights, should be a south american powerhouse, but the neoliberal agenda and u.s. backed military coup and resultant world bank debt has shackled their economy. nonetheless, Lula is establishing strong, domestic long-term growth based on a socialist agenda and will continue to do so.