Scandalous Brazil.
"Not much has been going right for the U.S. in Latin America. (...) One bright spot has been Brazil's economically viable center-left government led by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. But through the summer, a spreading corruption scandal has threatened the country's financial stability, and that is bad news for him and U.S. interests in the region. (...)
The U.S. has been doing what it can to mitigate Lula's problems. Treasury Secretary John Snow's applause for the Lula government's economic policies on a recent visit to Brazil may have been modestly helpful. The U.S. could show its willingness to back a special IMF program to avoid a run on the currency or a sudden stop in investment.
Yet even with the best intentions, there is only so much the U.S. can do, however important Brazil's fortunes are to American interests. The Workers' Party scandal is essentially a domestic problem, and it must be solved not by outsiders but by the country's own leaders."
[Los Angeles Times]
The U.S. has been doing what it can to mitigate Lula's problems. Treasury Secretary John Snow's applause for the Lula government's economic policies on a recent visit to Brazil may have been modestly helpful. The U.S. could show its willingness to back a special IMF program to avoid a run on the currency or a sudden stop in investment.
Yet even with the best intentions, there is only so much the U.S. can do, however important Brazil's fortunes are to American interests. The Workers' Party scandal is essentially a domestic problem, and it must be solved not by outsiders but by the country's own leaders."
[Los Angeles Times]
