Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gregor_us who wrote (12131)	4/18/2004 2:17:11 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 110194

know to little about Brazil to offer an educated opinion. I know they are a big nation with a very diverse population.

To: gregor_us who wrote (12131)	4/18/2004 3:42:55 PM
From: Jon Tara	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Building roads into the jungle (which is where they carve out these soybean plantations...) is a hot political issue in Brazil. So much more so recently due to the conflicts between Indians and illegal diamond miners that have left about 30 miners dead. The Economist has a timely article in their most recent (April 17-th-23rd) issue - p 35 "The price of success" on just the subject of the paving of a highway from Cuiaba in the soy-bean growing area of Mato Grosso to the port city of Santarem. They didn't mention any Chinese investment. I wonder, though, if this is what is being referred-to in reference to Chinese investment? It seems the environmentalists are oddly on-board with this one. They need a road to give access in order to enforce environmental laws. One of the biggest problems in Brazil today is lawlessness. It seems odd, given the polite and helpful nature of the average citizen. (I was there last November-December.) The problem is mainly one of specific areas (the favellas, or shanty-towns in the big cities, and the frontier where the mining and farming is done) where there simply is no law. (Brazil is currently dealing with two examples of this - in addition to the incidents with the diamond miners, a much-anticipated war has within the past week or so broken out between drug lords in the favellas of Rio de Janeiro.) The farmers and miners in the country, and the drug lords in the cities, just do whatever they damn please, with little or no enforcement. (I heard quite a bit about this when I was there. The boyfriend of the woman who handled the details of the apartment rental had just passed his test to become a federal prosecutor. They moved shortly thereafter to Mato Grosso, which is where they need the prosecutors and where he was sent. At least this is some indication that they are moving in the right direction...) As to Lula, unless things change, he is probably out next election. His approval rating has recently slipped to something like 20%. It's been quite a rapid decline over the past few months.