In the Financial Times, “Can a new commodities boom revive Brazil?” With dispatches to Ribeirão Preto and São Bernardo do Campo, in the state of São Paulo, the full-page report points out that “the country has become one of the biggest food producers, but the industry is in net. decline ”.
Agriculture, “alone” and mechanized, generating few jobs, would not be able to recover the country. “How it deals with these two trends can determine whether Brazil breaks free from the pattern of boom and bust. [boom and bust] which dates back to its origins as a resource extraction colony. “
Jair Bolsonaro is cited for cutting environmental protection, encouraging a “boycott” of agricultural products in the country. And Lula is known to have led strikes “during the military dictatorship”.
UP TO THE LAST DROP
On Bloomberg, “The oil giants are chasing this latest great find along the coast of Brazil.”
The energy transition is perhaps “underway in the world”, but in the country “Bolsonaro opens even more to the oil industry” for the giants Exxon, Shell, Total. “In Brazil, it’s like the last hurricane,” describes a consultant.
HONG KONG CONTINUES
A year after “warnings about the end of Hong Kong as a financial center” due to increased Chinese intervention, Bloomberg (above) reports that “signs of an investor exodus are hard to find.”
The stock market has doubled, the local currency is on the ceiling, no capital flight, Citigroup and BlackRock are hiring in the thousands.
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