Brazil's Lula pulls off trick twice, wooing Wall Street and the poor

[Judi Lynn]

Andrew Rosati and Maria Eloisa Capurro | Bloomberg
22 hrs ago

In his first spell as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva managed to keep both low-income voters and Wall Street investors happy. In his first year back in power, he has pulled off the same rare trick.

The $2 trillion economy expanded close to 3% in 2023 - triple what analysts were expecting in January when Lula returned to office. Inflation has slowed and polls show the president’s supporters, predominantly poorer Brazilians, feel that he’s delivering. Meanwhile, the stock market jumped to an all-time record and the country’s credit rating was improved.

Now the question is if the set of economic ideas that made the Brazilian leader successful - which can be loosely defined as Lulanomics - can go through 2024, a year when slowing activity, looming fiscal constraints and a difficult midterm election will pose a major test to his strategy.

The Lula of two decades ago rode a multi-year commodity boom that generated cash for his trademark poverty-fighting programs while undertaking big infrastructure projects and doling out cheap public loans - all without scaring investors who fret about budget blowouts or government interference with the central bank.

More:
https://www.postguam.com/the_globe/world/brazil-s-lula-pulls-off-trick-twice-wooing-wall-street-and-the-poor/article_eff52e26-d8a2-11ee-a362-479be8fd09fa.html

[GreenWave]

1. Investing in people booms an economy.

Even taxing the rich at high % as they will make an economy cycle faster to get their money back through profits.