Reason with him
Source: www.newsweek.com
22nd Sep, 2009 (Adapted)

Question (Q) 1: Margolis: When you took office, Brazil was regarded as an underachiever, and the last among the BRIC nations. Now Brazil is considered a star among emerging countries. What's happened?

Lula: No one respects anyone who doesn't respect themselves. And Brazil always behaved like a second-class country. We always told ourselves we were the country of the future. But we never transformed these qualities into anything concrete. In a globalized world you cannot sit still. You have to hit the road and sell your country. So we decided to make strengthening Mercosul (the South American trading bloc) a priority, and deepened our relations with Latin America in general. We prioritized trade with Africa and went into the Middle East aggressively. Our trade balance today is diversified. This helped us cushion the blow of the economic crisis.

Q2: Margolis: Has Brazil´s success in navigating the economic crisis changed investors' views?

Lula: There was no miracle. We had a strong domestic market. We had consumers who wanted to buy cars. We reduced part of the sales tax and asked the companies to offer consumers credit on affordable items. It's the same case with refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, and with computers and the housing construction.

Q3: Margolis: What are the lessons for other countries?

Lula: The great lesson is that the state has an important role to play, and has great responsibility. We don't want the state to manage business. But it can be an inducer of growth and can work in harmony with society.

Reason with him
Source: www.newsweek.com
22nd Sep, 2009 (Adapted)

Question (Q) 1: Margolis: When you took office, Brazil was regarded as an underachiever, and the last among the BRIC nations. Now Brazil is considered a star among emerging countries. What's happened?

Lula: No one respects anyone who doesn't respect themselves. And Brazil always behaved like a second-class country. We always told ourselves we were the country of the future. But we never transformed these qualities into anything concrete. In a globalized world you cannot sit still. You have to hit the road and sell your country. So we decided to make strengthening Mercosul (the South American trading bloc) a priority, and deepened our relations with Latin America in general. We prioritized trade with Africa and went into the Middle East aggressively. Our trade balance today is diversified. This helped us cushion the blow of the economic crisis.

Q2: Margolis: Has Brazil´s success in navigating the economic crisis changed investors' views?

Lula: There was no miracle. We had a strong domestic market. We had consumers who wanted to buy cars. We reduced part of the sales tax and asked the companies to offer consumers credit on affordable items. It's the same case with refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, and with computers and the housing construction.

Q3: Margolis: What are the lessons for other countries?

Lula: The great lesson is that the state has an important role to play, and has great responsibility. We don't want the state to manage business. But it can be an inducer of growth and can work in harmony with society.

Reason with him
Source: www.newsweek.com
22nd Sep, 2009 (Adapted)

Question (Q) 1: Margolis: When you took office, Brazil was regarded as an underachiever, and the last among the BRIC nations. Now Brazil is considered a star among emerging countries. What's happened?

Lula: No one respects anyone who doesn't respect themselves. And Brazil always behaved like a second-class country. We always told ourselves we were the country of the future. But we never transformed these qualities into anything concrete. In a globalized world you cannot sit still. You have to hit the road and sell your country. So we decided to make strengthening Mercosul (the South American trading bloc) a priority, and deepened our relations with Latin America in general. We prioritized trade with Africa and went into the Middle East aggressively. Our trade balance today is diversified. This helped us cushion the blow of the economic crisis.

Q2: Margolis: Has Brazil´s success in navigating the economic crisis changed investors' views?

Lula: There was no miracle. We had a strong domestic market. We had consumers who wanted to buy cars. We reduced part of the sales tax and asked the companies to offer consumers credit on affordable items. It's the same case with refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, and with computers and the housing construction.

Q3: Margolis: What are the lessons for other countries?

Lula: The great lesson is that the state has an important role to play, and has great responsibility. We don't want the state to manage business. But it can be an inducer of growth and can work in harmony with society.

Question (Q) 1: Margolis: When you took office, Brazil was regarded as an underachiever, and the last among the BRIC nations. Now Brazil is considered a star among emerging countries. What's happened?

Lula: No one respects anyone who doesn't respect themselves. And Brazil always behaved like a second-class country. We always told ourselves we were the country of the future. But we never transformed these qualities into anything concrete. In a globalized world you cannot sit still. You have to hit the road and sell your country. So we decided to make strengthening Mercosul (the South American trading bloc) a priority, and deepened our relations with Latin America in general. We prioritized trade with Africa and went into the Middle East aggressively. Our trade balance today is diversified. This helped us cushion the blow of the economic crisis.

Q2: Margolis: Has Brazil´s success in navigating the economic crisis changed investors' views?

Lula: There was no miracle. We had a strong domestic market. We had consumers who wanted to buy cars. We reduced part of the sales tax and asked the companies to offer consumers credit on affordable items. It's the same case with refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, and with computers and the housing construction.

Q3: Margolis: What are the lessons for other countries?

Lula: The great lesson is that the state has an important role to play, and has great responsibility. We don't want the state to manage business. But it can be an inducer of growth and can work in harmony with society.

In his answer to question 1, Brazil's president refers to "strengthening Mercosul as a priority." In other words, a measure he considered

This year's edition of the Taxation Trends in the European Union appears at a time of upheaval. The effects of the global economic and financial crisis have hit the European Union (EU) with increasing force from the second half of 2008. Given that the last year for which detailed data are available is 2007, this year's report cannot yet analyze the consequences of the recession on tax revenues. Nevertheless, the report takes stock of the tax policy measures taken by EU governments in response to the crisis up to spring 2009.

The European Union is, taken as a whole, a high tax area. In 2007, the overall tax ratio, i.e. the sum of taxes and social security contributions in the 27 Member States amounted to 39.8% of GDP. This value is about 12 percentage points above those recorded in the United States and Japan.

The high EU overall tax ratio is not new, dating back essentially to the last third of the 20th century. In those years, the role of the public sector became more extensive, leading to a strong upward trend in the tax ratio in the 1970s, and to a lesser extent also in the 1980s and early 1990s.

This year's edition of the Taxation Trends in the European Union appears at a time of upheaval. The effects of the global economic and financial crisis have hit the European Union (EU) with increasing force from the second half of 2008. Given that the last year for which detailed data are available is 2007, this year's report cannot yet analyze the consequences of the recession on tax revenues. Nevertheless, the report takes stock of the tax policy measures taken by EU governments in response to the crisis up to spring 2009.

The European Union is, taken as a whole, a high tax area. In 2007, the overall tax ratio, i.e. the sum of taxes and social security contributions in the 27 Member States amounted to 39.8% of GDP. This value is about 12 percentage points above those recorded in the United States and Japan.

The high EU overall tax ratio is not new, dating back essentially to the last third of the 20th century. In those years, the role of the public sector became more extensive, leading to a strong upward trend in the tax ratio in the 1970s, and to a lesser extent also in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The long climb
Source: www.economist.com
st Oct, 2009 (Adapted)

The world economy is fitfully getting back to normal, but it will be a "new normal". This phrase has caught on, even if people disagree about what it means. In the new normal, as defined by Pimco´s CEO, Mohamed El-Erian, growth will be subdued and unemployment will remain high. "The banking system will be a shadow of its former self," and the securitization markets, which buy and sell marketable bundles of debt, will presumably be a shadow of a shadow. Finance will be costlier and investment weak, so the stock of physical capital, on which prosperity depends, will erode.

The crisis invited a forceful government entry into several of capitalism's inner sanctums, such as banking, American carmaking and the commercial-paper market. Mr El-Erian worries that the state may overstay its welcome. In addition, national exchequers may start to feel some measure of the fiscal strain now hobbling California. America's Treasury, in particular, must demonstrate that it is still a "responsible shepherd of other countries' savings."

The long climb
Source: www.economist.com
st Oct, 2009 (Adapted)

The world economy is fitfully getting back to normal, but it will be a "new normal". This phrase has caught on, even if people disagree about what it means. In the new normal, as defined by Pimco´s CEO, Mohamed El-Erian, growth will be subdued and unemployment will remain high. "The banking system will be a shadow of its former self," and the securitization markets, which buy and sell marketable bundles of debt, will presumably be a shadow of a shadow. Finance will be costlier and investment weak, so the stock of physical capital, on which prosperity depends, will erode.

The crisis invited a forceful government entry into several of capitalism's inner sanctums, such as banking, American carmaking and the commercial-paper market. Mr El-Erian worries that the state may overstay its welcome. In addition, national exchequers may start to feel some measure of the fiscal strain now hobbling California. America's Treasury, in particular, must demonstrate that it is still a "responsible shepherd of other countries' savings."

The long climb
Source: www.economist.com
st Oct, 2009 (Adapted)

The world economy is fitfully getting back to normal, but it will be a "new normal". This phrase has caught on, even if people disagree about what it means. In the new normal, as defined by Pimco´s CEO, Mohamed El-Erian, growth will be subdued and unemployment will remain high. "The banking system will be a shadow of its former self," and the securitization markets, which buy and sell marketable bundles of debt, will presumably be a shadow of a shadow. Finance will be costlier and investment weak, so the stock of physical capital, on which prosperity depends, will erode.

The crisis invited a forceful government entry into several of capitalism's inner sanctums, such as banking, American carmaking and the commercial-paper market. Mr El-Erian worries that the state may overstay its welcome. In addition, national exchequers may start to feel some measure of the fiscal strain now hobbling California. America's Treasury, in particular, must demonstrate that it is still a "responsible shepherd of other countries' savings."

Los gobiernos latinoamericanos necesitarán entre 350 y 400 billones de dólares en préstamos en 2010 para reactivar sus economías tras la crisis fi nanciera global, según la vicepresidenta del Banco Mundial para América Latina y el Caribe, Pamela Fox. La obtención de préstamos no será fácil, incluso para proyectos de inversión, advirtió la funcionaria, debido a las difi cultades para conseguir fondos que están restringidos por la enorme demanda internacional de las naciones desarrolladas para sus paquetes de estímulo.

"A raíz de la crisis el papel del Estado ha crecido a niveles que eran inimaginables años atrás?, dijo Fox, pero el Estado dispone de menos recursos, de forma tal que "este momento exige más de los ciudadanos que pagan impuestos, especialmente de aquéllos con más ingresos, que deberían tener que afrontar una mayor carga tributaria", indicó. La funcionaria destacó que según la Organización de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo menos de un 4% de los ingresos públicos en America Latina provienen de pagos de impuestos personales, comparado con un 27% en las naciones industrializadas.