Anyone that makes it at the top of the list to run for President at a political party has already been greased up by a lot of interested parties. So you can't get into that position unless you are corrupt. Because you need a lot of money to get into that position. That's true in any country. The question is can the he still do positive things for the country along with the corruption that goes with along with it because corruption will always exist.
Corruption is part of our culture on all levels. from the housewife that "fura fila" in the checkout line, all the way up to CBF stealing public money and the executive bribing the congress. It will take longer to change our culture than to improve our economy. Korea for example just had their own "Bateu Mouche" debacle even though they are an economically developed nation. Difference being that over there crimes don't "prescrevem" (a concept so ridiculous that I don't even believe there's an english word for it? USA is still trying to get Roman Polanski arrested 4 decades later, while the crime that caused the drowning of over 50 people has an expiration date in our system). So I agree with you that our penal code needs to be rewriten, as well as our tax code, administrative code and constitution. Our biggest problem is not corruption by far tough, it's how the economy is run. Corruption costs us an estimated 100 billion dollars a year, our clunky socialist system costs us several trillion a year. As a 200 million people nation our GDP could easily be around 8trillion a year by now instead of our current 2.5.
The amount of corruption in Brazil is in part caused by this socialist system though, get rid of the socialist and statist nonsense and corruption will automatically reduce. Prescrição is typical of the 'Romano-Germânico' system, it's called prescription in English. I agree though that it's silly.
Look our Dilminha is up on a poll for TIME person of the year http://time.com/3562166/time-person-of-the-year-face-off-poll/vote/21/
About time they get a party, instead of being villained because of the dictatorship (they did some wrong things but still better them than a leftist dictatorship).
"Pilot Project Her administration started a pilot project last month to cut to five days from 103 the time entrepreneurs need to set up a business" You can do it online, instantaneously in Chile. Chile began modernizing it's economic model back in the 80s when Pinochet was consulting Milton Friedman to implement economic liberalism. Chile is the today the best economy in SA, we're at least 20 years behind them in 2015.
they were mocking our system 30 years ago. Flash forward 30 years, still oppressed by big government, and people still don't get it.
The infrastructure to transport grains, fruits, etc in the country is horrendous. The train infrastructure is dangerous and is pretty much obsolete. The Ports are even worse with the backlogs waiting to load/offload. The country has the ability to become a powerhouse for producing agriculturally, except there is no way to transport it anywhere. Extremely inefficient. Yet there is no real investments to fix this. No politician wants to commit to the future in this.
Unfortunately any changes that actually improve the economy, like less bureaucracy and privatizations, will be labeled as 'neo-liberal' and thus seen as negative. It's unbelievable that the idea of privatizing Petrobras, for example, can't even be considered despite all its current corruptions issues.
I convinced Brazilian politicians don't want to start up any type of reform themselves because they won't get the credit for it in the long run. Look at FHC. He spearheaded Plano Real and original Bolsa Familia and look at what he gets in return from PT. They accused him and PSDB of "breaking the country" and of course Lula takes credit for Bolsa Familia like he started it himself. It doesn't benefit Dilma to take a hard look at what needs to be done in Brazil to become modern like Chile because it will take too much time and when we finally do get on track, it won't be her administration and possibly her party to get the credit.
They're just gonna keep playing the short game to get reelected. That's the reason we could use a benevolent dictatorship than can plan long term. Another funny thing is that even though neo-liberalism is still fairly socialist, in Brazil that word is viewed as the equivalent of facism or another far right wing ideology lol.
Joaquim Levy will be the new Finance Minster. A banker. You know the same ones who she demonized and said would take food off the table of Brazilians. Everything she accused Aecio and Marina of doing which would hurt Brazilians, she is doing now. Interest rates were hiked less than a week after the election and will probably continue to increase in 2015 to fight the inflation she admitted is high during an interview after the election. Just the week before she said there wasn't a problem. Gas prices increased as well. And finally Levy said expenses over the next couple of years will have to be cut after she accused Aecio of doing the same thing. It'll be interesting to see where these cuts come from and if we're making cuts, we won't be seeing any growth a PT candidate can boast about in 2018. She did a compete 180 and while these are, unfortunately, the right things to do given our economic state her lies and manipulations never cease to amaze me. Levy, a good choice considering who was available, has been known to be very financially savvy and was apart of FHC and Lula's staff. But I have a feeling he'l be scapegoated in 2017. I read in Folha that these next 2 yrs will be dedicated to bringing Brazil back in the clear. 2015 esp will be painful for Brazil. My grandmother was complaining to me about the price of certain products just last week in Sao Paulo. I think Levy will be fired in 2017 after he brings Brazil back, Dilma will blame him for the hard times, hire some puppet, we'll see some better times not because new minister or Dilma but because we've tackled inflation, she'll take credit, and finally prop a PT candidate up in 2018 to take over.
New executive order gives each congressman $748 thousand Reais, as long as they bail Dilma out of a fiscal responsibility crime by voting to alter the fiscal goal for 2014 in the closing days of the year: BRASÍLIA – Às vésperas da votação da proposta que muda a meta fiscal de 2014, o governo editou decreto condicionando uma nova liberação de R$ 444,7 milhões para as emendas individuais à aprovação da proposta que muda a meta fiscal de 2014. O decreto da presidente Dilma Rousseff amplia em R$ 10,032 bilhões os gastos de toda a máquina pública este ano, sendo uma cota diretamente destinada aos parlamentares. Os R$ 444,7 milhões garantirão uma fatia de R$ 748 mil para cada um dos 594 parlamentares (513 deputados e 81 senadores). No ano, os parlamentares terão R$ 6,9 bilhões para a totalidade das emendas individuais, sendo que cada um fechará 2014 com uma cota de R$ 11,6 milhões O texto do decreto deixa explícita a condicionante entre a liberação dos gastos e a aprovação do projeto que altera a Lei de Diretrizes Orçamentárias (LDO) de 2014 e permite ao governo descumprir a meta fiscal deste ano. O governo explica que só poderá ter recursos para os pagamentos se houver a redução no superávit primário de 2014. Apenas ontem o decreto chegou ao Congresso “A distribuição e utilização do valor de ampliação ficam condicionadas à publicação da lei resultante da aprovação do PLN 36 (que é o projeto que muda a meta fiscal)”, diz o decreto assinado no dia 28 e publicado em edição extra do Diário Oficial do mesmo dia. Em seguida, o decreto ressalta que, “não aprovado o PLN 36, os Ministérios do Planejamento e da Fazenda elaborarão novo relatório de receitas e despesas”. http://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/decr...endas-alteracao-na-ldo-14712169#ixzz3Kzp9rSw7
Sadly that's hardly a surprise... Interesting article on the need to privatize state-owned companies like Petrobras, Correios, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal: http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reina...e-confianca-vai-encarar-dilma-ou-so-embromar/
average GDP growth under Dilma - 1.55% per year. Keep in mind that our population grows 0.9% annually, so we've been growing only 0.65% above baseline for the past 4 years. 2015 won't be any better.
The so-called 'Comissão da Verdade' ('Commission of Truth') final report unsurprisingly fails to mention the 121 people murdered by leftist terrorists/guerrillas during the military dictatorship period: http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reina...trata-se-de-mistificacao-revanchismo-e-farsa/
I won't be surprised if by the end of her term, Dilma if forced to privatize Petrobras. Its hemorrhaging money right now and with oil at a record low in 5 yrs because of the oversupply worldwide, things aren't going to get any easier. Stocks for it are at a 9 yr low, its overstaffed, and its almost half its 2010 worth. The government can't handle running it anymore. The country could probably make good amount from taxes if it was sold too.
Remember a law last yr that said oil royalties would go to funding for education and health care lol? http://noticias.terra.com.br/educac...a330ba1f48e7f310VgnVCM4000009bcceb0aRCRD.html