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Brazil Under Cardoso
119 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
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February 8, 2023
An informative book about economic situation in Brazil, the book delivers the political and economic context right before the years up to stabilization Real plan set by Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The book is edited by Susan Kauffman and Riordan Roett.
The book has four chapters; the chapter that captured my attention immediately was the one that discussed the re-addressing of pending inequalities and thus bringing up the social agenda in Brazil. The chapter states that during the period 1967-1973 experienced an extraordinary fast economic growth; the population under the poverty line dropped from 54 percent in 1970 to 25 percent in 1880. The author does not mention the source of the stats, I assume that those numbers come from government figures. The author mentions that while poverty declined, the inequality widened; the indicators that are discussed are education, specially the poor quality of education as well as the inequity of public spending. The summary is that social protections were increased during the military dictatorship, the coverage was greatly extended but the quality of services declines.
It was surprising that there are just few tables in the book; actually more surprising that there are statistics about perceptions of the risk associated with the persistence of Poverty and Inequality, those perceptions belonged to the congressional legislators (See the tables 3.1 and 3.2).
Also in the chapter four, the author offers directions for the reform under Cardoso's government (remember it is 97!): education, job creation, access to farmable land, income redistribution, and compensatory programs. The apex of the discussion is inevitably reforming the social security. The author emphasizes in that it is not only the corruption and the disproportionate amount of benefits to pensioners that make possible a crisis on the pension system; it was also the changing demographics.. One of the immediate actions was to increase the age of retirement for both men and women as well as bringing the pension benefits in line to private sector workers' benefits.
Finally, in the last chapter the author discussed why MERCOSUR was the best option before NAFTA for Brazil. The chapter two discusses the success of the Real plan. That is a terrific chapter and also enjoyed it. As the author explains and argues, the successful plan can be explained in three acts: i) fiscal adjustment, ii) adding the Real as a new monetary unit and iii) conversion that allowed for a (real) appreciation which did not increase the inflation. It was a book worth reading to know more about Brazil's stabilization plan.
Freddy
The book has four chapters; the chapter that captured my attention immediately was the one that discussed the re-addressing of pending inequalities and thus bringing up the social agenda in Brazil. The chapter states that during the period 1967-1973 experienced an extraordinary fast economic growth; the population under the poverty line dropped from 54 percent in 1970 to 25 percent in 1880. The author does not mention the source of the stats, I assume that those numbers come from government figures. The author mentions that while poverty declined, the inequality widened; the indicators that are discussed are education, specially the poor quality of education as well as the inequity of public spending. The summary is that social protections were increased during the military dictatorship, the coverage was greatly extended but the quality of services declines.
It was surprising that there are just few tables in the book; actually more surprising that there are statistics about perceptions of the risk associated with the persistence of Poverty and Inequality, those perceptions belonged to the congressional legislators (See the tables 3.1 and 3.2).
Also in the chapter four, the author offers directions for the reform under Cardoso's government (remember it is 97!): education, job creation, access to farmable land, income redistribution, and compensatory programs. The apex of the discussion is inevitably reforming the social security. The author emphasizes in that it is not only the corruption and the disproportionate amount of benefits to pensioners that make possible a crisis on the pension system; it was also the changing demographics.. One of the immediate actions was to increase the age of retirement for both men and women as well as bringing the pension benefits in line to private sector workers' benefits.
Finally, in the last chapter the author discussed why MERCOSUR was the best option before NAFTA for Brazil. The chapter two discusses the success of the Real plan. That is a terrific chapter and also enjoyed it. As the author explains and argues, the successful plan can be explained in three acts: i) fiscal adjustment, ii) adding the Real as a new monetary unit and iii) conversion that allowed for a (real) appreciation which did not increase the inflation. It was a book worth reading to know more about Brazil's stabilization plan.
Freddy
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