Brazil passes the worst economic plan in the world right now

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

http://www.vox.com/world/2016/12/15/13957284/brazil-spending-cap-austerity

Urgh. I'm willing to say that Temer ties with Duterte for worst democratic leader (if you consider how he came to power democratically) in the world today (and yes that will still be true after Trump takes office.)

[dead0man]

don't worry man, the left will come back in Brazil....isn't the violence already starting?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

don't worry man, the left will come back in Brazil....isn't the violence already starting?

Yes, primarily by the state towards protesters.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Anyway, if we accept that all elections will go exactly the awful and unexpected way, presumably Bolsonaro will be elected in 2018 and usher in a fascist dictatorship to hunt down the homos and eat the poor.

[Mike88]

This is not surprising. Brazil's economic collapse is very similar to Venezuela's, although Brazil's economy is more diverse than Venezuela. Brazil's economy was pretty much supported by one company Petrobras and the vast majority of companies across the country worked for Petrobras. From shipbuilders, to ropes and cables companies and services, this company was pretty much to big to fail, so when it failed it would drag the Brazil's economy with it. And because of the huge size of this company, a lot of government revenue came from the company that helped pay for government programs to help the poor. After oil prices plummeted and the corruption cases were discovered, Brazil's government had to make drastic measures to shore up the economy, control the deficit and attract business. Many of this measures are bad, unfair and could have an opposite effect but when you make a lot of mistakes in more than 10 years and do not foresee that one day this will end, the adjustment is going to be a lot harder.

[Storebought]

This is not surprising. Brazil's economic collapse is very similar to Venezuela's, although Brazil's economy is more diverse than Venezuela. Brazil's economy was pretty much supported by one company Petrobras and the vast majority of companies across the country worked for Petrobras. From shipbuilders, to ropes and cables companies and services, this company was pretty much to big to fail, so when it failed it would drag the Brazil's economy with it. And because of the huge size of this company, a lot of government revenue came from the company that helped pay for government programs to help the poor. After oil prices plummeted and the corruption cases were discovered, Brazil's government had to make drastic measures to shore up the economy, control the deficit and attract business. Many of this measures are bad, unfair and could have an opposite effect but when you make a lot of mistakes in more than 10 years and do not foresee that one day this will end, the adjustment is going to be a lot harder.

Brazil's economy never seems to have been as diversified as, say, Mexico. Then again, Brazil doesn't have access to the remittances that Mexico has, either.

[buritobr]

Very bad economic plan. The right is using the justified fear of budget deficits and increasing public debt in order to implement its "small welfare state" agenda.
The constitutional amendment required to freeze the federal spending for the next 20 years. But if we freeze the spending now and the economy starts to recover, we will reach a budget surplus in less than five years. So, there is no need anymore to freeze the spending. The goal of this amendment is reducing the taxes in the future, not the deficit.
Nowadays, the ratio federal spending/GDP is ~20%. If we freeze the federal spending for the next 20 years, and the GDP grow at a rate of 3% yearly, the ratio federal spending/GDP will be ~12%.

I believe that the next administrations will try to aprove a constitutional amendment cancelling this amendment that freezes the budget.

[parochial boy]

I think calling Temer a "democratic" leader is a little bit, uh, rich.

This sort of austerity has been such a success in Latin America in the past as well; I mean there is a reason the 80s were called the "lost decade".