Episode 27: The Brazilian Economy

We talk about the Brazilian economy, and Milton misses his bedtime.

Links:

• Dragon of Inflation -- an article in Portuguese with a nice graphical representation of the metaphorical dragon. (Another good one here)
• Income Tax Lion -- another image
• Inflation Article -- details the various currencies Brazil has had
• Brazilian Real -- Wikipedia entry about the real with additional info on past currencies. See also cruzeiro and cruzado.
• Curious Lucre (Brazil) -- a humorous look at several old Brazilian banknotes
• Economy of Brazil -- Wikipedia
• Economic History of Brazil -- Wikipedia
• Brazil 1990 -- my old college paper that I read in part on the show
  
• The Collor Plan -- Wikipedia
• Dollar to Real Graph -- increase in the value of the real over the past three months
• Juscelino Kubitschek -- Wikipedia

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Comments

[allan]

Hi guys

I am really fascinated by most of the discussions you have, and in the past, have felt that they added character to your tales of language, home, and street. But....

....the fighting/contesting/arguing that went on in this cast could have been edited out without any loss of information. but this is only one person's view, I know. Afterall, i felt the whole John-of-god episode could have been left on the editing floor given how little you told.

Getting back to this episode. Personally, I would have liked to learn more about the person-on-the-street's view of the changes in Brazil these last 10 yrs. Are people happy with the ethanol economy they have developed, and with the costs in terms of air pollution from field burning? Are Brazilians willing to make the economic sacrifices associated with reductions in the destruction of the rainforests? What parts of the job market seem to be growing fastest? Are some states (say, in the North), seen as drains on others (say Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul)? Are people optimistic about the next 5 yrs in Brazil? etc. Just more more more.

Finally, I really think you ought to hook up with a 3rd partner (preferably native Brazilian) to discuss life in Salvador vs life in Santa Catarina.

in any case, I really like seeing your insights into Brazilian life. Never stop.

[Kinsey]

Hi Allan,

Thanks for chiming in. I don't recall specific arguing in this episode, but Milton and I often have different opinions on the things we talk about, and I think that makes the conversations more interesting and informative.

I was surprised by your take on the John of God episode. I thought it was chock full of information, and we covered a lot that I hadn't found when researching on the internet beforehand.

Your questions are all excellent, and I'm a little embarrassed that I don't know the answers to any of them. We'll definitely be covering most or all of them in upcoming episodes. With all the great suggestions we've been getting, there is definitely no danger of us ever running out of interesting topics.

We definitely need to cover the different regions of Brazil. I'm not yet sure how we'll do this, but I would love to have a guest on from the south of Brazil. (They're hard to find, though.)

[The real spanky]

I have recently traveled to the great green south from the great white north. The lovely ticket agent was really nervous about letting me on the plane.

She said she had sent someone off with an expired visa. When said traveler arrived at immigration things got ugly. An ensuing trip to Paraguay took place to get the appropriate documents. Afterwards a U$5000.00 was issued to the original airport (where the lovely ticket agent works).

the real spanky (don't accept any fake ones)

[Kinsey]

Spanky,

I'm glad I'm not the only one to have had that problem.

By the way, are some of the Spankies who comment here fake ones?

[President Spanky]

I looked things over. That all looks like original spanky speak. But watch out, counterfeit spankies are common around the gift giving season.

Hello Milton! Don't change a bit.

President Spanky

[Kinsey]

Spanky, that's good. I was afraid we had been infiltrated by Spanky imposters.