Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy

by Adam Tooze

With regard to the pandemic, the failure of presidential leadership in Brazil was near total. As the disease spread from the globe-trotting jet set in São Paulo to the rest of Brazilian society, President Bolsonaro continued to deny the seriousness of the situation.62 It was left up to Brazil’s state-level governments—regions the size of European countries—to react. The partial lockdowns that they were able to organize slowed the spread of the disease. But these also caused economic havoc. The virus exposed the huge gap between Brazil’s powerhouse global corporations and the millions of small businesses that account for the bulk of employment. Official unemployment, which was already around 12 percent at the beginning of 2020, lurched upward toward 15 percent, and official statistics had little to say about the 40 million informal workers who make up almost half the Brazilian workforce.