The left wins, and that is really bad news from Brazil

What a way to spoil a Sunday evening.  I just got word that Brazil wants to continue living in the past:

“The BBC’s Wyre Davies in Rio de Janeiro says it was the tightest of contests, but in electing Dilma Rousseff, Brazilians had opted for continuity and backed a system and party that has brought economic growth and generous welfare programmes.

But, he continues, Brazil looks and feels divided – whereas Dilma Rousseff did well in the poorer northern states, her opponent took many of the wealthier and more developed southern parts of Brazil.

Aecio Neves, of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), was the governor of the southern swing-state of Minas Gerais for eight years.

Correspondents say wealthy Brazilians were more likely to back Mr Neves, who had vowed to put the economy back on track after four years of low growth rates with the country now technically in recession.

The election campaign has been marked by aggressive accusations on both sides, a rivalry that reached part of the electorate, with nasty disputes proliferating on social media, says the BBC’s Julia Dias Carneiro in Rio de Janeiro.”

Again, this is a bitterly divided country.   

Can reelected President Dilma Rouseff make this work?  

Let’s hope so but I am not optimistic.   

As a Brazilian friend told me last week, we are two countries, or one half that works and the other half is dependent on government.   My friend is not optimistic about his country either.

Like Argentina a hundred years ago, a country that was once projected to be a great superpower, Brazil will continue to be that country with great potential that never quite makes it.  Unfortunately, just a bit over half of its citizens continue to vote for those who tell them what they want to hear and keep the dependency going.  They win elections but the country will never be great with this kind of leadership.

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

An ‘Elizabeth Warren vs. Jack Kemp’ Election in Brazil This Sunday

We usually think of “futbol,” beaches, and samba when it come to Brazil.  Most Americans know about Rio’s beautiful beaches, but few understand that Brazil is a U.S. $2.4-trillion GDP, or top 10 in the world.   

It exports a lot to the U.S., from clothing to aircrafts. 

It is the economic powerhouse of South America because of its size but an underachiever on GDP growth.   

It ranks as the 114^th freest economy in the world in The Index of Economic Freedom:

Brazil had advanced into the ranks of the “moderately free” economies in the Index during the first half of the 2000s, but since 2007, the economy has fallen back to the status of “mostly unfree.” The lack of progress toward greater economic freedom has discouraged private-sector growth and continues to undermine realization of the economy’s full potential.

It is a rich country with huge pockets of poverty.  It is a nation of contrasts!

On Sunday, we will have a “right vs. left” election, and it’s too close to call.

The right is represented by challenger Aecio Neves, a former governor and businessman from a political family.  The left is represented by the incumbent Workers’ Party candidate Dilma Rousseff.

Brazil has three chief problems:  corruption, a slow economy, and violence.  It’s the corruption that’s really hurting the incumbent Workers’ Party.

Mr. Neves is running a “Jack Kemp” campaign for president:

The main proposals of the Neves campaign are tax reform, political reform and an orthodox macroeconomic agenda rather than Dilma’s agenda of temporary macroprudential measures designed to lower taxes short-term and weaken the currency to help exporters.

Mr Neves’s victory would be a huge boost for the free-market forces in Latin America.  It would be a huge loss for the Chavez wing and its disciples in Bolivia and Argentina.

Mr. Neves also wants to join the Pacific Alliance and start doing more business with that region.

The polls are too close to call.  We caution you that the Workers’ Party has a good ground game and will get its voters to the polls.  Mr. Neves is hoping that the middle class shows up and expresses its anger with taxation and corruption on Sunday.

Again, it’s too close to call.  However, somewhere up in heaven Jack Kemp must be cheering for Mr. Neves!  A Neves victory would vindicate everything that Jack Kemp used to tell us about.

P.S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

 

WEDNESDAY: THE ELECTIONS IN BRAZIL PLUS OTHER US-LATIN AMERICA STORIES

WEDNESDAY: THE ELECTIONS IN BRAZIL PLUS OTHER US-LATIN AMERICA STORIES…..Listen in now at http://t.co/rQjYDOCazW. #BlogTalkRadio

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) October 22, 2014

The left and Brazil’s elections

From IBD: “Brazil’s Election Shows How The Left Th… http://t.co/faGY7cOgeC

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) October 15, 2014