Dollar reaches R$ 4.00 and scares Brazilian economists

A public discussion between the President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro and the president of the Chamber of Deputies Rodrigo Maia made the financial market nervous this week.

Yesterday, March 28, the tourism dollar reached R$ 4.20 and euro at R$ 4.70. As a result, the day was turbulent in the Brazilian financial market.

Today, March 29, the commercial dollar opened the session with a fall of 0.84%, being traded at R $ 3.8830 for sale and R $ 3.8810 for purchase.

To make matters worse, unemployment continues high despite improvements in recent months. In the quarter ended in February, the unemployment rate in Brazil was 12.4%, according to data from the National Survey for Continuous Household Sample (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua - PNAD) published today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). In the same period in 2018, the unemployment rate measured by PNAD was 12.6%.

According to Eduardo Moreira (former partner of Banco Pactual), there is a fugue of investors from  Brazil. For Moreira, a critic of the Bolsonaro administration, the first three months of government did not present any type of project and indicated a fragility in the president's capacity for articulation with the National Congress.

Cost of living in Brazil: beans and potatoes

The rice and beans dish is a combination consumed daily by Brazilians. This dish is now more expensive because beans are now more expensive.

According to the Broad Consumer Price Index (Índice Nacional de Preços ao Consumidor Amplo 15 - IPCA-15), the price of this basic item, which had already registered a 34.56% increase in February, rose 41.44% in March.

This was one of the reasons for the IPCA-E, which is the IPCA-15 accumulated quarterly, to be 1.18%, above the rate of 0.87% registered in the same period of 2018.

Another item that also had a price increase was the potato. The kilo of this product rose 12.39% in February and 25.59% in March.

As a result, previous official inflation in March (IPCA-15) showed a 0.54% increase in prices in relation to the previous month

Former president of Brazil, Michel Temer, is arrested

The Operation Lava Jato of the Federal Police arrested today the ex-president Michel Temer and the ex-minister Moreira Franco. Both are accused of involvement in corruption schemes. In an interview with the journalist Kennedy Alencar, Temer classified his prison as "a barbarity."

The arrest was based on the donation of José Antunes Sobrinho, owner of Engevix. The businessman told the Federal Police that he paid R $ 1 million in tips at the request of Colonel João Baptista Lima Filho, who would have received the bribes for the political group of former president Michel Temer.

Engevix was one of the construction companies responsible for the construction of the Angra 3 atomic power plant, located on Itaorna beach, in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro.

Cost of living in Brazil in 2019

Inflation has rebounded in Brazil. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), official inflation accelerated to 0.43% in February 2019.

High food prices and school fees were the main factors for the month's high. In 12 months, the accumulated IPCA (National Wide Consumer Price Index) rose to 3.89%. Despite this rise in prices, inflation is below the government's target for 2019: 4.25%.

According to Fábio Romão, an economist at LCA Consultores, fuel prices are expected to pull up in inflation now in March.

The constant crisis produced by the current government and the possible difficulty to approve a profound Pension Reform may make a more moderate inflation picture unlikely.

The Bolsonaro paradox

The British magazine, The Economist, on its front page claims that a victory by right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro would be a catastrophe for Brazil.

Paulo Guedes, the economist responsible for the Bolsonaro government plan, said yesterday that a future Bolsonaro government will come back with a tax called CPMF, which will collect a portion of any financial transaction made in Brazil. Bolsonaro, meanwhile, spent the entire campaign stating that he will not raise taxes if elected.

Paradoxically, the right-wing and ultraliberal Bolsonaro leads the polls in a country where the population is largely against an ultraliberal government. Research indicates that most Brazilians want health and education services to be public. Programs such as Bolsa Familia, which protects people against hunger, are also widely aproved by the population.

Because of this, renowned statistician Paulo Guimarães, who helped countless politicians win elections in Brazil, believes that Bolsonaro may not make it to the second round of elections. In an interview for El Pais Brasil, Guimarães said that Bolsonaro's votes are not "of competence". They are "protesting, hateful against the other side".  For Guimarães, "the highest loyalty among the candidates is that of the Bolsonaro, but there is a very fluctuating part there, which is there because of hatred. If the voter realizes that he can win from the PT without hatred, he can change, but for that, one of those other center candidates has to appear with a vote that gives hope to the voter". 

Candidates from the center-left and center-right, such as Ciro Gomes and Geraldo Alckmin, respectively, have a few days to try to change that picture and win undecided voters and those who are not so loyal to Bolsonaro.

Presidential elections in Brazil

The election to the presidency of the Republic of Brazil is headed for a second round marked by radicalism. The left-wing candidate and the Workers' Party (PT), Fernando Haddad, former Minister of Education of Govern Lula and former mayor of the city of São Paulo, adopted a more radical agenda, which advocates raising taxes for the rich, democratization of the media, fight against the banking monopoly — in Brazil only five banks are responsible for 80% of the country's financial operations.

On the other side is Jair Bolsonaro from the tiny PSL, Partido Liberal Social, adopts an agenda that for many political analysts is far right. According to Celso Rocha de Barros, a doctorate in sociology from the University of Oxford, said on the last day in the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo that Bolsonaro's followers want to do a coup.

Bolsonaro, an ex-military man who has been in Brazilian politics for about 30 years and has been elected federal deputy many times, has spent the last few days adopting a speech that does not recognize the results of the election if not the winner. . His deputy, Colonel Mourão, also ex-military, said that if elected, will make a new constitution without the participation of the population, that is, according to Mourão, his government will make a new constitution made by a commission of notables.

If the dispute between Haddad and Bolsonaro is confirmed in the second round, Brazil will leave the election with a more radical government for both left and right. The question is: the country that is coming from a deep and deep recession will enter 2019 with a very difficult political agenda, regardless of who is elected.

Bitcoin fever arrives in Brazil

Brazilian media publishes an interactive map that shows which establishments in the world accept bitcoin. According to the report, it is possible to buy anything from sandwiches to cars. In Brazil, the bitcoins market is turning into a fever. Many Brazilians are spending clear nights to invest in these digital coins. States such as São Paulo and Paraná and Rio Grande Sul have the largest number of investors. In 2018, a shopping mall in Recife, Pernambuco's capital, will accept bitcoin as payment.

‪‪ Brazil's Homeless Workers' Movement‬‬ is growing

The state secretary of Housing of Pernambuco, Bruno Lisboa, canceled the meeting scheduled for January 21 with members of the Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST). After not being received by the secretary, members of the MTST tried to enter the building of the State Housing Company (Cehab), in Recife to protest.

Cehab's office called the police. A military police group was deployed to contain the demonstrators. The group was received by the Military Police with rubber bullets and tear gas bombs. A protester and a police officer were injured. About 20 people were detained.

According to lawyer Ivan Moraes, "members of the Movement of the Homeless Workers of Pernambuco suffered violations of rights and were victims of police aggression". In his Facebook page, he defends that Governor Paulo Câmara open a channel for dialogue and debate the social use of the land that is idle and belongs to the State of Pernambuco, next to the Terminal do Barro, in Recife.

The movement for decent housing has been growing in Brazil. The group that demonstrated in Recife is formed by citizens who lost their shacks in a fire in the Happy Family community occurred on 2016. Many families have lost everything.

The Federal Constitution of Brazil guarantees every citizen the right to decent housing, and since 1948, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a dignified dwelling has become a universal and fundamental right for people's lives. To decent housing, and since 1948, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a dignified dwelling has become a universal and fundamental right for people's lives.

Today, MTST is one of the most important political groups in Brazil. Its growth since the 1990s is undeniable, largely because of the growing fight for rights in the country and scary growth in housing prices, many of them virtually impossible for ordinary Brazilians.

Watch videos about police action and demonstration in Recife:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu9-GRt0aLY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maZS0S1F9hs

Brazilian government is cutting funds to fight Zika virus

According to Folha de S.Paulo, federal and local governments in Brazil are going to spend less money to prevent and fight epidemics like Zika, dengue and chikungunya. Brazil will spend less money in 2015 than in 2014. The difference is big. In 2015, the total invested in these policies was 4,6 billions reais. In 2014, the government spended 5,1 billion reais.

On top of that, the current Minister of Health, Marcelo Castro, is going to be absent from his duties. For him and his party (PMDB), is more important that Castro take part in political disputes in Brasilia this week. The fight against zika virus will have to wait.

Brazil’s right-wing is on the move

Today, hundreds of thousands joined right-wing protests for ouster of Brazil’s president. They want the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. Her government is accused of failure in its response to state-owned oil and gas Petrobras crisis. The company is in the midst of an unprecedented financial crisis and a scandal of corruption. The Petrolão (Petrobras scandal) has become a political nightmare for Mrs. Rousseff, whose popularity has hit record lows.

At São Paulo, Brazil biggest city, according to the police, 275.000 of people protested at the Avenida Paulista. According to Datafolha, a local polling company linked to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, there were 100.000.

Some protesters, like the group SOS Forças Armadas, want the end of Democracy. For them, the solution is simple and very scary: they want a dictatorship. Those right-wingers defend the military regime that ruled from 1964 to 1985, one of the most dark chapter of Brazilian history.

What is carnism?

In this video from Portal NAMU, Melanie Joy explains carnism, the invisible belief system that shapes our perceptions about the meat we eat. In her opinion, belief systems like this have sanctioned the behavior that gave rise to a mindset in which we can love some animals and eat others.