Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Katelyn Sherman
Mr. Phillips
14 December 2018
Trump” by the media? Bolsonaro is an extreme right-wing conservative who leans towards the
populist party, and he has contentious views that create controversy amongst the citizens of
Brazil regularly. In addition to his questionable morals and his argument-provoking statements,
his economic policies also evoke many different opinions. Bolsonaro’s biggest priorities
economically are pension reform, tax reform, and privatizing big corporations. When taking into
account what his policies consist of and how effectively they can be carried out, it is clear that
the policies Jair Bolsonaro promises to implement in his campaign will predominantly negatively
impact the economic well-being of the citizens of Brazil, except for investors and large business
corporations.
Bolsonaro is not qualified nor educated enough to make informed, intelligent decisions
about how to help the people of Brazil economically. David Biller, a journalist for the London
newspaper Bloomberg, states that Bolsonaro has admitted to not being very knowledgeable
when it comes to commerce, and he has chosen to leave the economics of the nation “in the
hands of Guedes,” an investment banker and now the presidential advisor. Adding on to
reasons Bolsonaro is underqualified, according to a writer for the blog Open Democracy, after
the attempted assassination of Bolsonaro, he took that opportunity to victimize himself and
further push his campaign, gaining his popularity through manipulation, not his policies. This
event led to a sudden surge of anti-Worker party feelings amongst the lower classes of Brazil,
posing a threat to democracy and paving the way for authoritarianism. If authoritarianism
overtook republic as Brazil’s form of government, people would have very limited political
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freedoms and would be bound tightly to a stable, central government, meaning the value of their
The economic policies that will be put into place under Bolsonaro are unrealistic,
unclear, and they will not help Brazil with what they are currently struggling with economically.
Arthur Gomez Moreira, a writer for the blog The Conversation that is sponsored by the
University of Sussex, writes that currently, the Brazilian government’s economic approach is
something called social-developmentalism. This strategy “is focused on the potential of Brazil’s
internal market, demand for natural resources, and developing internal demand through
study funded by the Pew Global Attitudes Project in 2014 focused on the economy of Brazil, it
states that one big economic problem of Brazil is inflation, which leads to major unemployment
issues. It also creates a more drastic gap between the wealthy and the impoverished, not to
mention the public debt. According to a writer for The Toronto Star, the number of unemployed
citizens reaches almost 13 million. Guedes claims that he is going to resolve that issue by
creating ten million jobs in the next few years (Biller). Although that seems like a good idea, in
theory, it would be hard to create millions of brand new jobs in just two to three years, and
Guedes doesn’t even provide a general idea of where he would implement these new jobs. It
also has to be taken into consideration that the number of unemployed will only go up as time
goes on, so there will still be millions left without jobs even if the creation of the ten million jobs
are successful. Another problem of the Brazilian economy is their poor health care, and so far
Guedes nor Bolsonaro have said anything about health care reform, and the closest policy that
could relate to that is their supposed pension reform (“Pew Global Attitudes Project”).
Bolsonaro and Guedes are placing their economic interests above the what the people
of Brazil believe needs significant reform. When asked what they thought the most urgent
economic issue was, 39% of the citizens of Brazil said the lack of employment opportunities,
27% said the pay gap, 25% said inflation, and 6% said public debt (“Pew Global Attitudes
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Project”). However, instead of working on trying to fix the pay gap or prevent it from furthering,
some economic policies Guedes wants to implement “include dozens of privatizations and a
revamp for the nation’s byzantine tax code” (Biller). The hope is that by taking the largest
energy corporations run by the state and privatizing them entirely that it will reduce future debt,
make the businesses more productive, and “provide an immediate cash infusion to the country’s
coffers” (Oyamada). However, as already stated earlier by Moreira, when only focusing on
Brazil’s internal market it just makes the pay gap worse, which will have the opposite effect of
what is needed.
Multiple professors and analysts have made educated guesses as to what will result
from the economic policies Bolsonaro and Guedes wants to implement, and they’re all negative
speculations. Paulo Bilyk, a chief investment officer at Sao Paulo-based Brao Investimentos,
states that “what is most likely is that the new government will struggle to get reforms approved
and solving the fiscal problem.” One top market analyst said Brazil’s benchmark stock index
could tank as much as 40 percent (Biller). Mark Weisbrot of the Washington-based think tank
Center for Economic and Policy Research said Bolsonaro’s victory thrusts Brazil’s democracy
into crisis. These are quotes from three different people of different education levels and
different professions, and they all agree that the economy of Brazil is only looking to worsen if
these policies are implemented. “Privatization would be a game changer,” says Greg Lesko, a
money manager at Deltec Asset Management in New York, “but I have to say I’m less optimistic
on that.” Even though some of Bolsonaro’s policies do seem useful in theory, they won’t pan out
Despite Bolsonaro’s controversial campaign and his poorly thought-out plans for his
presidency, there are good things about him that helped him win the election. According to a
writer for the blog Open Democracy, many Brazilian citizens think that by electing Bolsonaro
into office their country will grow to be more successful and they believe he is the “strong man
type figure” that is necessary to “end the corruption and violence.” Guedes also has some plans
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for implementing open trade and free markets, which is a step towards capitalism that could
have a positive impact, but overall the other bad economic policies outweigh the good.
Bolsonaro is someone who the people of Brazil think will be someone who is not afraid of
making decisions, which can be helpful in certain high-stakes decisions. He is a powerful guy
who plans on taking Brazil’s government in a completely different direction. His extreme
statements and bold promises are what makes him appealing because the people want a
change, but his reforms will not affect the country for the better.
Bolsonaro and Guede’s policies are vague and impractical, and they will negatively
affect the economic well-being of the citizens of Brazil. Their ideas for pension reform, tax
reform, and privatization of large businesses either don’t address the problems that need to be
addressed, and they couldn’t feasibly be useful throughout the next few years, meaning the
citizens will not see any improvement with employment or the pay gap any time soon. Citizens
have already been protesting his presidency and they should continue to as time goes on,
because if enough people can rise up against Bolsonaro he will have to change some of his
policies. The citizens of Brazil should also look out for the next election, in which they can pay
more attention to the candidate’s promises and elect someone who will change Brazil for the
better.
Work Cited
Biller, David, et al. "Brazil Super Minister Shoulders Weight of Bolsonaro Economy." Bloomberg
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-30/brazil-s-super-minister-shoulders-weight-of-b
Olsonaro-economy.
https://sks.sirs.com.
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"Brazil's wrong turn; Jair Bolsonaro." Toronto Star [Toronto, Ontario], 30 Oct. 2018, p. A10. Global
Issues in Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A560412991/GIC?u=rale84535&sid=GIC&xid=318a76c
"Chapter 1.- Views of National Conditions and the Economy in Brazil." Pew Global Attitudes
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A369988222/GIC?u=rale84535&sid=GIC&xid=5309c5
Langlois, Jill, and Kate Linthicum. "Far-Right Populist Wins Presidential Election in Brazil." Los
Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2018, pp. A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.
Moreira, Arthur Gomes. "Brazil Faces Two Very Different Economic Models." The Conversation,
theconversation.com/brazil-faces-two-very-different-economic-models-in-bolsonaro-and-had
Dad-98573.
Oyomada, Aline, et al. "Brazil's Monster Rally Due for Reality Check After Bolsonaro Win."
s-monster-rally-due-for-reality-check-after-bolsonaro-win
"Will turning right lead Brazil the wrong way? With the election of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil is the latest
country to embrace populism. What's next for Latin America's most populous nation?" Globe
& Mail [Toronto, Canada], 3 Nov. 2018, p. O3. Global Issues in Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A560923961/GIC?u=rale84535&sid=GIC&xid=224e746c.