Brazil: A Trump effect?

Trump Victory Adds Pressure on Brazil for Reforms, Executives Say (emphasis added)

Donald Trump’s U.S. election victory and the ensuing market volatility should encourage Brazilian policymakers to push ahead with ambitious economic reforms that help cushion the country from global turmoil, business executives and bankers said Tuesday.

A lack of decisive action to nudge Congress into approving broad pension, labor and spending cap legislation over the next months could imperil President Michel Temer’s effort to pull Brazil out of its deepest recession in eight decades, executives told Reuters at a New York event sponsored by Banco Bradesco SA.

One of them, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Trump’s surprise victory has shown that “more than ever, the fate of Brazil depends on Brazil, which means it is up to us to fix our economy and lure capital.”

Ponder that for a moment,

Trump’s surprise victory has shown that “more than ever, the fate of Brazil depends on Brazil, which means it is up to us to fix our economy and lure capital.”

That would be the best thing to come out of this election.

In other news, Post-Olympic Rio de Janeiro faces mounting unrest as austerity bites. Falling oil prices and lack of investment are pushing the state to the brink of bankruptcy

The party’s over: Rio de Janeiro’s time as the host city for the Olympic Games is a distant memory, while at the state level it can no longer rely on revenue from its offshore oil wells. To make matters worse, ongoing investigations into widespread corruption have frightened foreign investors away. Unemployment in the state of Rio de Janeiro has risen from 3.5% in 2014 to 6.7%, almost twice the national average.