MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazil in recession: worst slowdown in nearly three decades
Brazil's economy shrank 1.9% in the second quarter, sinking into a recession that has hammered President Dilma Rousseff's popularity. The quarterly contraction, reported by government statistics agency IBGE on Friday, was bigger than what markets expected and confirms the worst slowdown for Brazil in nearly three decades. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesWe are improving our society. Long before a recession is an investment!
Aug 30th, 2015 - 04:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0B R A S I L I L O V E YOU ! ! !
I don't doubt you love your country.
Aug 30th, 2015 - 09:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0However people have been telling you for years that your growth model was flawed and your system corrupt.
Your love didn't change the outcome. Many of the improvements made in Brazil in the past 2 decades are being lost. Unemployment, bankruptcy and corruption are eroding wealth and ruining lives.
I also love my country. However it handle the boom better that yours. We were told we squandered the boom and yet we are still growing.
Blind love didn't help your country Brazileiro. You are partly to blame for this recession.
Congratulations.
Yes congratulations to socialism - it never works, only creates braindead idiots like Brasileiro who suck off the teat of society until it breaks down, even then they won't admit the farce.
Aug 31st, 2015 - 03:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0Three cheers for Brasso, the misguided idiot, probably the most brainwashed person on this site. Thanks Brasso for all your well researched comments.
Aug 31st, 2015 - 08:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0If Corbyn ever won an election (ha, ha, ha) this is what the UK would have to look forward to.
Aug 31st, 2015 - 11:06 am - Link - Report abuse 0And of course, it's going to get even worse.
Perhaps a start in “loving your country” is to accept that corruption in Brazil is a cancer that mostly affects the poor. The only way to allow Brazil to reach its rightful position in the world and especially improve the lives of the impoverished is to ruthlessly eliminate corrupt politicians of ALL political parties. (Although the majority belong to the Worker's Party.)
Aug 31st, 2015 - 02:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The latest corruption scandal involves the young mayor Lidiane Leite of the Maranhao State and her boyfriend who embezzled 4.2 million dollars from the public schools budget.
I've always preferred the Chinese method of a one day trial, confiscation of their wealth and by lining them up against the wall and shooting them.
A sign, or maybe THE sign, of success for countries whose economies are largely commodity-based is whether or not they can weather the storm of downturns and still give the population the services they provided to them during the good times. It seems the very left-leaning governments in these commodity-based countries are unable to do this. For example, Venezuela promised a bunch of free stuff to the population when oil was well over $100/barrel. They said they were providing all of these great things to the population. Sounds really super. Is it sustainable? I think we're seeing the answer with Brazil as well. Will all of the Brazilian people “brought out of poverty into the middle class” during the good times stay there? Not to mention the corruption, to Chicureo's point, which exacerbates the problem.
Aug 31st, 2015 - 03:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Instead of looking to Brazil as any kind of example, Latin American countries should look to Chile. It's not all rainbows and unicorns in Chile, but they have their shit together more than most of the countries in SA, or Latin America as a whole.
#7 Jakesnake
Aug 31st, 2015 - 04:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Well written. Although we don't have Unicorns, we do have too many die hard Marxist-Socialists that continent to reverse the progress of our small country.
Along with a mandated autonomous independent Central Bank, Chile’s government is required to deposit an amount equivalent to between 0.2 and 0.5 percent of the previous year’s GDP into a pension reserve fund invested securely outside of Chile. It is also required to put a percentage of its fiscal surplus into its so-called Economic and Social Stabilization Fund. Sort of a “Rainy Day” fund which along with our international credit rating places us in a position to survive a severe recession.
This does help even out economic uncertainty due to uncertain markets, Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, Tsunamis...
You are completely correct about what happened in Venezuela where they went on an economic populist spending binge and today there is not enough medicine for patients resulting in them resorting to buy black market veterinary substitutes instead.
During the Allende government in Chile, I well remember waiting in long lines to buy meager offerings with my family's ration book for cooking oil, rice, beans... My father brought back from business trips treasures like toilet paper and shampoo...
Chile's current fiscal conservatism came at a terrible price, but it has worked well, where we now have the highest per capita income and standard of living in Latin America.
@Chicureo I'll be interested to see what post-Bachelet Chile looks like. Hopefully it won't stay too far left. A pragmatic government that doesn't pander to protesters would be good.
Aug 31st, 2015 - 04:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#9 Jakesnake
Aug 31st, 2015 - 06:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The positive view is that Bachelet is not that far to the left and I really doubt that Socialists will be that popular with our current economy
I personally belong to the conservative Renovación Nacional party in a coalition with the Independent Democratic Union party.
Our last president, Piñera, was besieged by student protesters demanding educational reforms and was overall lackluster. Bachelet right now is experiencing very low popularity numbers because of her tax reforms resulting in a significant slowdown in the economy. Continuing declines in copper prices, which directly goes into the government income has hurt as well. (Saying all that, Chile has few problems compared to our neighbors.)
The problem is the the right has been in conflict with each other and seems to can't find a presidential candidate that will appeal to the center left of Chile's majority. Time will tell...
@ 6 Chicureo
Aug 31st, 2015 - 06:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I agree, but don't forget that they charge their family for the cost of the cartridge(s) used for the execution.
Even with this ruthless approach, corruption at National Government level still goes on unpunished unless the miscreant forgets to pay the bribe!
ChrisR
Sep 01st, 2015 - 01:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0Although I like the idea, the human rights groups would go nuts if we charged them for the bullet as they already get their noses bent out of shape when you shoot them against a wall. Boy they are they sensitive!
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