New York Times (November 9)
Brazil “had been on an upward trajectory, that seemed to have shaken off the legacy of instability.” Instead, it “suffered a terrible recession and is experiencing a very slow recovery.” The nation “appears to have been hit by a perfect storm of bad luck and bad policy: The global environment deteriorated sharply…. Domestic private spending also plunged… Policy, instead of fighting the slump, exacerbated it.”
Tags: Bad luck, Bad policy, Brazil, Instability, Perfect storm, Recession, Recovery, Spending
The Guardian (October 17)
“If Brazil’s recent decline could be plotted in the falling popularity of its presidents, Michel Temer represents the bottom of the curve.” Overall, his popularity now sits at 3%, but “among under 24-year-olds, Temer’s approval hit zero.” Brazil’s president “has been charged with corruption, racketeering and obstruction of justice.” He may conceivably “escape impeachment, but the ongoing political crisis undermines democracy and opens the door to authoritarian hardliners.”
Tags: Approval, Brazil, Corruption, Crisis, Democracy, Impeachment, Obstruction of justice, Popularity, Racketeering, Temer, Zero
Bloomberg (May 22)
“Investors dumped Brazil’s stocks and currency Thursday as the country’s ever-proliferating corruption scandal spread to President Michel Temer. This latest twist in a seemingly endless saga not only threatens to stall vital economic reforms but also comes close to showing that the corruption in Brazil’s government is literally beyond control.”
USA Today (August 4)
“The main non-athletic story line of the Rio Games has to be the utter folly of hosting these costly exercises in short-term gratification. Brazil is expected to spend as much as $20 billion on the Games, this after dropping $15 billion on the 2014 World Cup.” These excesses are “back-breaking” for host countries and the IOC should be ashamed of the “scarce money to be misspent” on the Games, money which is diverted from more pressing priorities.
Tags: Back-breaking, Brazil, Folly, Host, Host countries, IOC, Misspent, Olympics, Priorities, Rio, World Cup
Financial Times (June 23)
Some say Brazil “suffers from a complex of grandeza or greatness. Lately, though, Brazil has been big in all the wrong ways. The country is facing its biggest recession. It is engulfed by its biggest corruption scandal. It has the world’s most indebted oil company, Petrobras. This week, it witnessed its biggest-ever corporate bankruptcy” when telecoms company Oi filed for protection.
Tags: Bankruptcy, Biggest, Brazil, Complex, Corruption scandal, Greatness, Indebted, Petrobras, Recession
Bloomberg (June 20)
“Brexit stresses are seeping into virtually every corner of the global foreign-exchange market. Of 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg, all but three have seen a jump in the cost to hedge against big declines.” The Japanese yen Brazilian real and Swiss frank are the three exceptions.
Tags: Brazil, Brexit, Cost, Currencies, Declines, Forex, Hedge, Japan, Markets, Real, Switzerland, Yen
New York Times (May 6)
Brazil has failed to clean up “the highly polluted waters of Guanabara Bay and off nearby Copacabana Beach” where athletes will be asked to compete in water with “virus levels 1.7 million times what would be considered hazardous at a California beach.” Brazil had pledged to build eight water treatment plants to halt the daily flood of raw sewage into the bay, but only one has been built. With less than 100 days to the Rio Olympics, no more will be built. “Brazil’s chief of security for the Games and the sports minister have recently resigned, and the president, Dilma Rousseff, is facing impeachment.” The only remaining solution is to move the aquatic events “to safe, clean waters” even if that means transferring them to another country.
Tags: Athletes, Brazil, Copacabana, Guanabara Bay, Hazardous, Impeachment, Polluted, Raw sewage, Rio Olympics, Rousseff, Treatment plants, Virus levels, Water
Institutional Investor (April 23)
“Rate announcements by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan will loom large this coming week as investors consider the alternate reality of negative interest rates. Meanwhile, key economic indicators for onetime BRIC stars Russia and Brazil will arrive as each suffers from the weight of low oil prices and Brazil deals with domestic political intrigue surrounding the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.”
Tags: Announcements, BOJ, Brazil, BRICS, Economic indicators, Fed, Impeachment, Negative interest, Oil, Rates, Rousseff, Russia
U.S. News & World Report (February 24)
Beijing is now “home to more billionaires than any other city in the world” after successfully edging out “New York City as the world’s capital for billionaires.” Of nearly 2,200 billionaires worldwide, 100 reside in Beijing, while 95 call New York City home. Moscow ranks a distant third with 66 billionaires. Nationwide, with 568 billionaires, China has also beaten the U.S., which ranks second, with 535. Japan round out the top ten countries with 42 billionaires, just behind the 49 living in Brazil.
New York Times (August 18)
“Brazil is in tatters. The economy is in a deepening recession.” On top of that Petrobras is facing a “massive corruption scandal” and the country’s credit rating was just downgraded by Moody’s. “In all this turbulence, it is easy to miss the good news: the fortitude of Brazil’s democratic institutions.” Specifically, “in pursuing bribery at Petrobras, federal prosecutors…have not been deterred by rank or power, dealing a blow to the entrenched culture of immunity among government and business elites.”
Tags: Brazil, Bribery, Business, Corruption, Credit rating, Democratic institutions, Downgraded, Economy, Elites, Government, Immunity, Moody's, Petrobras, Power, Prosecutors, Rank, Recession, Scandal
