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Brazil “delivery”: The political economy of the Lula government

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the new Brazilian government’s economic policy at the beginning of 2003. It argues that surprisingly the government of PT (Worker’s Party) has fallen into the perverse logic of “credibility”. This logic implies the death of macroeconomics and will impede the imperative retaking of growth. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the arguments of government to justify this unconditional surrender to orthodox economics makes no sense because it is not possible to prove that Brazilian economy was falling down a precipice at the beginning of the new administration. It also suggests that the spurious identification between responsible administration and liberal economic policy may be pointed as one of the reasons of this astonishing result.

KEYWORDS:
Lula government; Brazilian economy; economic policy; financialization; neoliberalism

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