Ricardo Berzoini, seen as an ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has been elected as the new chairman of the ruling party, the PT, with 51% of the internal party vote. Berzoini served earlier in Lula’s administration as Minister of Labor and Social Security.
Category: Economy & Policy
Posted inMagazine
Stormy Seas
Lula finally managed to convince investors that he is committed to economic growth. But a widening corruption scandal threatens to discredit his work.
Posted inDaily Brief
Mail Fraud
To those in the know, it was only time before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his leftwing Workers Party (PT) became entangled in a major corruption scandal. When the PT was in opposition, it earned credibility with voters for standing up against bribery and backroom political deals. Now that Lula is in government, Brazilians have realized how little has changed.
Lula, like so many of his predecessors facing corruption scandals, first tried to block attempts by Congress to investigate the affair. Public outcry forced the government to give way. Now a Congressional committee is probing claims that a PT ally skimmed money from the state postal system. To add to the confusion, the very same ally accused the PT of paying millions of reais in under-the-counter “allowances” to buy politicians’ votes.
Now everyone looks bad. The scandal has paralyzed the government’s modernization program intended to make Brazil a more prosperous and less corrupt country. How predictable that Lula and the PT, which swept to power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, should have resorted to the old way of doing business in Congress. Cynics just say the PT’s mistake was not to pay enough.
Posted inDaily Brief
Rossano Confirmed at Banco do Brasil
The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva confirmed Rossano Maranhão Pinto as president of state-owned Banco do Brasil, Latin America ‘s biggest bank. Maranhão Pinto took over temporarily as president last September after his predecessor Cássio Casseb quit in anger at accusations of financial irregularities made against against him. Analysts had feared the government might replace Casseb with a political appointee. However, Maranhão Pinto is a highly repsected career Banco do Brasil executive, and was formerly vice president of the bank’s international and wholesale division.
Posted inMagazine
Lula at the Halfway Point
The government’s reform agenda is bogged down in Congress. Luckily for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, economic recovery is boosting his support.
Posted inMagazine
Widening Expectations
Lula had a rough start in office, but the economy is beginning to recover. Now he needs to ensure that boom doesn’t turn to bust.
Posted inMagazine
Slow Death
Few of the plutocrats who own most of Latin America’s big companies have ever cared very much about their minority shareholders or about corporate governance. By tradition, they prefer to […]
Posted inMagazine
Still a Heavy Hand
Successful modern economies require an enlightened approach to regulation, but the PT and its congressional allies have not shaken off their suspicion of market economics sufficiently to abandon the leading […]