How much more can poor Brazil sustain? It’s got its current president (at least as of this writing), Dilma Rousseff, and its former president, known for short as Lula, ensnared in a corruption scandal involving Petrobras, the country’s public-private hybrid oil company. Petrobras is by most accounts the most indebted company in the world and the low price of oil won’t do much to improve its ability to pay.
Then there’s the Brazilian economy. Most Americans are at least marginally aware that the United States and China have two the largest economies in the world but I strongly suspect that most are blithely unaware that Brazil has the seventh largest economy. That economy is presently in a steep slump—it’s contracted about 10% over the last five years. There are lots of reasons: it depended too highly on purchases of raw materials by China, the price of oil, you name it.
The summer Olympics are scheduled to begin on August 5 in Rio. Can anyone possibly believe that all of the preparations will be completed smoothly and with a minimum of corruption? The IOC has been kvetching about Brazil’s lack of preparedness for the Olympics or some time. And what about security?
And then there’s the Zika virus. The number of cases of microcephaly attributed to the Zika virus in Brazil is now variously reported as anything from more than nearly 900 to 4,000.
It’s practically the perfect storm for poor Brazil.
I’m thinking of expanding this post for Outside the Beltway to include citations, some elaboration on the various issues, and some commentary by some old friends of mine who are living in Brazil. It’s really a shame that Americans are so disinterested in our neighbors’ problems.
I was in Rio right when the economy was booming, and it was a dangerous third-world city with favelas everywhere and deserted streets at night. There have been definite benefits of the boom–a cash-assistance program, for example, and a violent but necessary crackdown on the gangs inside the favelas–but the huge structural inequality hasn’t gone away. So the answer to your question varies depending on who you’re asking. Middle-class or higher Brazilian people live a world apart from the rest of the country.