Huge Protests In Brazil Are The Result Of Global Currency Wars
Brazil counterattacked last year. The Real plunged 24% against the buck. Prices of imported goods soared – adding to the inflation that had already been zigzagging up from 3.7% in 2007. In May, it hit a red-hot 6.45%.
It was just too much for the 40 million people who’d made the transition from poverty into (barely) the middle class since the turn of the millennium. Products they buy on a daily basis have jumped: tomatoes are up 96% over last year, onions 70%, rice 20%, chicken 23%. Since 2008, rents are up 118%. Rio de Janeiro has become the third most expensive city in the world.
But the economy is languishing. Last year, it eked out a minuscule gain of 0.9%, after having edged up only 2.7% in 2011, dreadfully slow for a developing nation. Stagflation!
So cities increased bus fares – in Rio by 6.7%, from R$ 3.00 to R$ 3.20 ($1.47). The spark that ignited the fire. On Thursday, 5,000 to 10,000 protesters rallied against the fare increases, set a bus on fire, smashed windows. The police responded with force, shot seven reporters of the daily Folha with rubber bullets, enthusiastically teargased TV reporters who were filming the mass arrests....
http://www.businessinsider.com/currency-war-rattles-brazil-wakes-up-the-people-2013-6