Paulo Guedes says the people on the left have "the head down and the good heart" The Day



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São Paulo – Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has pledged to end the many years of failed state intervention through deep free market reforms under President Jair Bolsonaro. He has granted a "broad interview" to the British economic newspaper Financial Times, in his Brasilia office, to talk about what he plans to do to boost Latin America's largest economy. In the online version of the interview with the Brazilian Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, the Financial Times reports that he touches a finger on his temple.

"People on the left have their heads" weak "and good-hearted," he says. "The people on the right are strong-headed and …" He's looking for the right sentence. "Not so good hearts."

The newspaper describes Guedes as a former fund manager who had been chosen by the right-wing president to revive the Brazilian economy after the worst recession in his history. He said the pension reform would save 1,000 trillion rand in 10 years and that it should be approved "within five months".

Changes in Brazil's pension regulations, still described as "generous" by the British vehicle, would be quickly followed, according to the minister, by a tax reform and a privatization program radical in which there would be no sacred cows. "We are moving towards a market economy," said economist and professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago.

The electoral victory of Bolsonaro, a former army captain who admires US President Donald Trump, is a "and hailed the military dictatorship of Brazil, was widely regarded as an element of the Global change towards right-wing nationalism and a threat to Brazilian democracy.Guedes insisted that it was a bad badessment. "It's the other way around. That was my message to Davos, "he said, according to the FT, the minister faces a number of challenges: a large budget deficit, an increase in public debt, a near-record unemployment rate that has left about 12 million people out of work, low productivity and anemic economic recovery, but the paper also pointed out that the external accounts are broadly balanced and external reserves amount to $ 377 billion. dollars.

The Financial Times recalled that the scandals of recession and corruption paved the way for elections in which in Bolsonaro, nearly 60 million Brazilians voted to promote the values ​​of the Christian family, the fight against Corruption and a far-right platform for law enforcement that largely echoed a record 64,000 homicides in 2017. Recruitment of Guedes in tan he economic adviser, the text continues, was a turning point in the campaign by bringing together investors, entrepreneurial groups and formerly skeptical entrepreneurs

"People were asking me: how can a Liberal badociate with conservatives? the clutter is already there: every year, more people are dying than American soldiers in Vietnam, "he said." The president will bring "order", the progress of the liberals, "he said. he said, referring to the motto of the Brazilian flag "Order and Progress."

An odd couple

Guedes and Bolsonaro are a strange couple, according to FT.The first was described as a An occasional day trader, who founded what will later become the country's largest investment bank, BTG Pactual, Bolsonaro was a "deputy" with a tradition of voting against liberal economic policies and in favor of corporatist nationalism that Guedes envisions.

However, Guedes said that they shared a common vision of the country's renovation and liberation of its youth "Socialist Burden" of the Workers Party (PT), which led Brazil during the biggest party Although this has lifted millions of people out of poverty, the country's biggest corruption scandal and worst recession has angered voters against the PT. "The socialist economic order is failing," said Guedes. "We will maintain social spending, but stop corruption, privileges and benefits," he said. "Pensions are a regressive and perverse revenue transfer machine."

Guedes also said that the overall changes to retirement would generate savings of $ 700 million to $ 1.3 trillion and would be submitted to Congress "as soon as the President gets up." Bolsonaro is at the Hospital after the operation for the removal of a colostomy bag after being stabbed during the campaign last year.

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The newspaper's website emphasizes that it is a moment of frankness for the "super economy" Brazilian, as far as where the president for whom he works is a former captain of the right wing considered worldwide as a "protofascist" with a predilection for the military dictatorship.

according to the report, from the extent of Guedes' views and his belief that Bolsonaro is not the extremist phantasmagoric as is often seen abroad. "We are creating an open popperian society," he said, citing one of the many times he remembered the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, defender of a liberal and vibrant democracy.

Popper is also a hero of George Soros, the liberal philanthropist hated by some ethno-nationalists from around Bolsonaro. "Ideology is the real enemy," he says. "I am only a scientist who does my job."

Guedes was described by the British vehicle in its online version as undoubtedly the second most powerful man in the Brazilian government, bringing together five ministries – Finance, Trade, Labor, Industry and Development – in his portfolio.

As Bolsonaro recovers from its operation, the new government is haunted by disputes: Most recently, Conservative Minister Ernesto Araújo demanded a tougher line against Venezuela over a more cautious military approach. by the Vice President, General Hamilton Mourão. For its part, Guedes' economic team was right with ambitious reform proposals. "Brazil is the eighth largest economy in the world, but the 130th in openness, near Sudan, it also ranks 128th in terms of ease of doing business … I mean … Jesus Christ!", He says jumping

The FT points out that Guedes, tanned, intense in his conversation and with the expressive gestures typical of the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, said he wanted to halve this ranking in four years only, by reducing expenses,

Born into a middle-clbad middle clbad, Guedes was educated through scholarships and earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. He then worked in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, leaving Santiago with his wife only after finding the secret police searching his apartment. "I saw Chile poorer than Cuba and Venezuela today, and the Chicago boys solved the problem." Chile now looks like Switzerland, "he said, saying that the social cost of unemployment was 21% in 1983. "That's bullshit," he says. "Unemployment was already there, it was only hidden in a destroyed economy." This is a controversial point of view, according to the British vehicle.

On his return to Brazil, he became a fund administrator, casual trader and prolific newspaper columnist. He says he met Bolsonaro "exactly a year and a month ago" and, after avoiding several job offers in the government, now uses the trader's jargon to justify his choice. "I have spent my whole life generating alpha [desempenho superior do mercado] and watching successive governments destroy the beta," he says. "Now, I want to improve the beta version of Brazil."

After 20 years of dictatorship and 30 years of social democracy, the balance of Brazil right is healthy, he said. "When the Liberals arrive, it's good news, not bad news." However, according to the British newspaper, doubts remain: what about social policy, given Brazil's inequality? And his liberal magic is compatible with political liberalism, given Bolsonaro's seemingly authoritarian strength?

Glasnost and Perestroika

"Certainly, Russia and Brazil had glasnost before perestroika," he said referring to policies of openness and political and economic liberalization. "You have to have both, so you have growth and a middle clbad that brings stability." The alternative route adopted by Brazil leads to a rentier state characterized by corruption. "We were a one-armed democracy," he said. "The system is corrupt, I mean, why did Lula, the most popular politician in Brazil, have only thirteen years of corruption charges?" He quotes a newscast where a newscast just published the latest lawsuit against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.

Critics say the punishment resulted from a death sentence. A manipulated political power that wanted to ban the leftist leader of the electoral race, thus paving the way for the victory of Bolsonaro. Instead, Guedes suggests that it was the brazilian employer system that bound him. The recipe for correcting this is "a market economy, instead of a failing economy that has corrupted the political order".

Few Brazilians would disagree with this diagnosis, according to the FT, given how the country is still suffering the consequences of its deepest and biggest corruption scandal. His economic vision is more Ronald Reagan's than Donald Trump's, and he seems realistic about his political constraints, says the FT. "The President [sempre pode dizer] no, I have the votes."

As a theoretical economist pointing to the stars, he seems to be content to reach the moon and admits that it will be a hectic trip. "There is a lot of damage to repair."

                          

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