Teatro de sombras da política econômica - editorial OESP

Enrolação e maquiagem

11 de fevereiro de 2013 | 10h 54

Editorial O Estado de S.Paulo

O governo federal prepara mais um truque para maquiar suas contas e encenar, como no ano passado, o cumprimento da meta fiscal. A gastança continuará e a gestão orçamentária será pelo menos tão ruim quanto antes, mas a desculpa do Executivo terá sido preparada com muitos meses de antecedência. A ideia, desta vez, é abrir espaço para mais R$ 20 bilhões de incentivos tributários sem ter de cortar gastos ou arranjar recursos para compensar a renúncia. No ano passado, o truque envolveu, além do desconto de valores contabilizados como investimento, operações entre o Fundo Soberano e bancos federais e também a incorporação de dividendos antecipados. Nenhuma pessoa informada poderia levar a sério as explicações oficiais, embora ninguém tenha contestado a legalidade do arranjo. Igualmente legais têm sido a política de preços e outras aberrações – pelo menos algumas – impostas à Petrobrás desde o governo do presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As consequências desastrosas dessas medidas são hoje conhecidas em todo o mundo.
Os abusos cometidos contra a Petrobrás e a má administração das finanças públicas são componentes da mesma história. O governo gasta muito mais tempo criando remendos, inventando maquiagens e contornando problemas do que buscando respostas efetivas para os grandes desafios nacionais. A ação escolhida é sempre a mais confortável e mais populista – e geralmente a menos eficaz como política econômica. O caso dos incentivos fiscais é mais um exemplo. O governo continua tratando as dificuldades da indústria como questões conjunturais. Mas os grandes problemas, hoje, são muito diferentes daqueles enfrentados entre o fim de 2008 e o primeiro semestre de 2009.
O fracasso de 2011 e 2012 confirma o erro de diagnóstico, mas a equipe econômica se mostra disposta a insistir em estímulos temporários e localizados. Reduzir a carga tributária seria muito bom, mas para isso seria preciso mexer mais amplamente em todo o sistema de receitas e despesas. Isso o governo rejeita, porque seriam indispensáveis medidas politicamente custosas – a começar pela racionalização dos gastos públicos. Se estivessem dispostos a seguir esse caminho, a presidente Dilma Rousseff e seu ministro da Fazenda, Guido Mantega, poderiam dispensar os truques de maquiagem fiscal.
Com esses truques, o governo planeja abater até 41,8% dos R$ 155,9 bilhões previstos como superávit primário sem violar formalmente o compromisso. Podem contornar a restrição legal e até convencer algumas pessoas de muito boa vontade, mas nenhum artifício como esse mudará os fatos e impedirá a deterioração da política fiscal e dos padrões da gestão pública.
Há no governo federal quem considere superado o critério do superávit primário, resquício de programas combinados com o Fundo Monetário Internacional (FMI). Em muitos outros países, de fato, esse critério é ignorado. Mas esse argumento é incompleto e pode ser tão enganador quanto aqueles truques.
De fato, em outros países se leva em conta o resultado nominal, isto é, o saldo final das contas públicas, incluído o pagamento do serviço da dívida. Se esse padrão fosse adotado, a missão do governo seria muito mais complicada. O desajuste fiscal brasileiro é menor que o dos países em crise, mas essa comparação também é uma forma de contornar os problemas. Pior que isso: acaba sendo usada para desviar a atenção da inegável deterioração da política fiscal.
Se o governo tivesse a firmeza necessária para cuidar dos grandes problemas, combateria diretamente a inflação, em vez de aceitar qualquer alta de preços até o limite de tolerância, de 6,5%. Mas é mais fácil conter os preços da gasolina e do diesel e baratear este ou aquele item da cesta de bens e serviços, sem levar em conta, por exemplo, as consequências para empresas como a Eletrobrás e a Petrobrás. Cuidar dos problemas seriamente envolveria também maior cuidado com os investimentos em infraestrutura, gastos federais, qualidade dos tributos e prioridades dos bancos públicos. Fora disso, resta a política da enrolação – como a insistência na maquiagem das contas públicas e dos índices de preços.

O estouro da bolha de Bruzundanga - Marco Antonio "Lima Barreto" Villa

Também se pode invocar "O Homem que sabia Javanês", para certos improvisos verbais da mestra da bolha, ou seja, não se sabe bem o que fala, o que pretende, o que anda fazendo por ali; mas consegue impressionar os jornalistas ingênuos e a maioria de incautos, de que é feita grande parte do eleitorado.
Corrijo: jornalistas não costumam ser ingênuos. Podem ser ignorantes ou coniventes, o que é mais provável, ambos os casos ao mesmo tempo, diga-se de passagem.
Eu realmente fico surpreendido com o grau de desinformção, e de equívocos interpretativos, de muitos colegas acadêmicos, pessoas supostamente preparadas para buscar, saber ler e interpretar as notícias. Sempre me perguntei como, por que, pessoas que deveriam normalmente ser bem informadas, escolhiam a desinformação, a ilusão, no limite a mentira...
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Vou-me embora pra Bruzundanga

11 de fevereiro de 2013 | 11h 04

Marco Antonio Villa

 

O Brasil é um país fantástico. Nulidades são transformadas em gênios da noite para o dia. Uma eficaz máquina de propaganda faz milagres. Temos ao longo da nossa História diversos exemplos. O mais recente é Dilma Rousseff.
Surgiu no mundo político brasileiro há uma década. Durante o regime militar militou em grupos de luta armada, mas não se destacou entre as lideranças. Fez política no Rio Grande do Sul exercendo funções pouco expressivas. Tentou fazer pós-graduação em Economia na Unicamp, mas acabou fracassando, não conseguiu sequer fazer um simples exame de qualificação de mestrado. Mesmo assim, durante anos foi apresentada como "doutora" em Economia. Quis-se aventurar no mundo de negócios, mas também malogrou. Abriu em Porto Alegre uma lojinha de mercadorias populares, conhecidas como "de 1,99". Não deu certo. Teve logo de fechar as portas.
Caminharia para a obscuridade se vivesse num país politicamente sério. Porém, para sorte dela, nasceu no Brasil. E depois de tantos fracassos acabou premiada: virou ministra de Minas e Energia. Lula disse que ficou impressionado porque numa reunião ela compareceu munida de um laptop. Ainda mais: apresentou um enorme volume de dados que, apesar de incompreensíveis, impressionaram favoravelmente o presidente eleito.
Foi nesse cenário, digno de O Homem que Sabia Javanês, que Dilma passou pouco mais de dois anos no Ministério de Minas e Energia. Deixou como marca um absoluto vazio. Nada fez digno de registro. Mas novamente foi promovida. Chegou à chefia da Casa Civil após a queda de José Dirceu, abatido pelo escândalo do mensalão. Cabe novamente a pergunta: por quê? Para o projeto continuísta do PT a figura anódina de Dilma Rousseff caiu como uma luva. Mesmo não deixando em um quinquênio uma marca administrativa - um projeto, uma ideia -, foi alçada a sucessora de Lula.
Nesse momento, quando foi definida como a futura ocupante da cadeira presidencial, é que foi desenhado o figurino de gestora eficiente, de profunda conhecedora de economia e do Brasil, de uma técnica exemplar, durona, implacável e desinteressada de política. Como deveria ser uma presidente - a primeira - no imaginário popular.
Deve ser reconhecido que os petistas são eficientes. A tarefa foi dura, muito dura. Dilma passou por uma cirurgia plástica, considerada essencial para, como disseram à época, dar um ar mais sereno e simpático à então candidata. Foi transformada em "mãe do PAC". Acompanhou Lula por todo o País. Para ela - e só para ela - a campanha eleitoral começou em 2008. Cada ato do governo foi motivo para um evento público, sempre transformado em comício e com ampla cobertura da imprensa. Seu criador foi apresentando homeopaticamente as qualidades da criatura ao eleitorado. Mas a enorme dificuldade de comunicação de Dilma acabou obrigando o criador a ser o seu tradutor, falando em nome dela - e violando abertamente a legislação eleitoral.
Com base numa ampla aliança eleitoral e no uso descarado da máquina governamental, venceu a eleição. Foi recebida com enorme boa vontade pela imprensa. A fábula da gestora eficiente, da administradora cuidadosa e da chefe implacável durante meses foi sendo repetida. Seu figurino recebeu o reforço, mais que necessário, de combatente da corrupção. Também, pudera: não há na História republicana nenhum caso de um presidente que em dois anos de mandato tenha sido obrigado a demitir tantos ministros acusados de atos lesivos ao interesse público.
Com o esgotamento do modelo de desenvolvimento criado no final do século 20 e um quadro econômico internacional extremamente complexo, a presidente teve de começar a viver no mundo real. E aí a figuração começou a mostrar suas fraquezas. O crescimento do produto interno bruto (PIB) de 7,5% de 2010, que foi um componente importante para a vitória eleitoral, logo não passou de uma recordação. Independentemente da ilusão do índice (em 2009 o crescimento foi negativo: -0,7%), apesar de todos os artifícios utilizados, em 2011 o crescimento foi de apenas 2,7%. Mas para piorar, tudo indica que em 2012 não tenha passado de 1%. Foi o pior biênio dos tempos contemporâneos, só ficando à frente, na América do Sul, do Paraguai. A desindustrialização aprofundou-se de tal forma que em 2012 o setor cresceu negativamente: -2,1%. O saldo da balança comercial caiu 35% em relação à 2011, o pior desempenho dos últimos dez anos, e em janeiro deste ano teve o maior saldo negativo em 24 anos. A inflação dá claros sinais de que está fugindo do controle. E a dívida pública federal disparou: chegou a R$ 2 trilhões.
As promessas eleitorais de 2010 nunca se materializaram. Os milhares de creches desmancharam-se no ar. O programa habitacional ficou notabilizado por acusações de corrupção. As obras de infraestrutura estão atrasadas e superfaturadas. Os bancos e empresas estatais transformaram-se em meros instrumentos políticos - a Petrobrás é a mais afetada pelo desvario dilmista.
Não há contabilidade criativa suficiente para esconder o óbvio: o governo Dilma Rousseff é um fracasso. E pusilânime: abre o baú e recoloca velhas propostas como novos instrumentos de política econômica. É uma confissão de que não consegue pensar com originalidade. Nesse ritmo, logo veremos o ministro Guido Mantega anunciar uma grande novidade para combater o aumento dos preços dos alimentos: a criação da Sunab.
Ah, o Brasil ainda vai cumprir seu ideal: ser uma grande Bruzundanga. Lá, na cruel ironia de Lima Barreto, a Constituição estabelecia que o presidente "devia unicamente saber ler e escrever; que nunca tivesse mostrado ou procurado mostrar que tinha alguma inteligência; que não tivesse vontade própria; que fosse, enfim, de uma mediocridade total".
* HISTORIADOR, É PROFESSOR DA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SÃO CARLOS (UFSCAR)

Trem-bala: torrando dinheiro do contribuinte com obsessoes desnecessarias

Provavelmente 9 entre 10 especialistas em transportes públicos no Brasil não consideram necessária a construção imediata de um trem bala, seja onde for, preferindo que os investimentos públicos se façam nos grandes centros metropolitanos, em obras de metrô, vias expressas, novas facilidades de diversos tipos para transportes em comum. O décimo "especialista" deve trabalhar para o governo, ou como lobista de uma dessas empresas que querem ganhar um dinheiro fácil com uma inutilidade desnecessária.
Incrível como o governo vem abusando de nossa inteligência, achando que somos todos idiotas, e perpetrando novos gastos públicos para superfluidades desse tipo.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Empresa estrangeira será contratada para fazer o projeto do trem-bala brasileiro
O Globo, 9/02/2013

No páreo, estão companhias da  Europa e da Ásia

BRASÍLIA - A Empresa de Projetos e Logística (EPL) quer publicar até o fim deste mês um edital de concorrência internacional para contratar a empresa que fará os estudos necessários para o projeto executivo da construção do Trem de Alta Velocidade (TAV), o trem-bala. Com um valor do edital de cerca de R$ 30 milhões para o trabalho, essa empresa estrangeira deverá fazer o controle de todos os tipos de estudos relativos ao traçado entre Campinas e Rio, passando por São Paulo, para chegar ao projeto-executivo que servirá de base para a licitação da obra, no ano que vem.
Segundo o presidente da EPL, Bernardo Figueiredo, estão nesse páreo empresas de França, Espanha, Alemanha, Coreia, Japão e até mesmo da China, que foi excluída do edital de operação por ter tido acidentes recentemente em seu trem-bala. O custo total do projeto-executivo está estimado em R$ 1 bilhão segundo o governo. Na lista, além de estudos de geologia estão pontes e viadutos. (Danilo Fariello e Eliane Oliveira).
===========
Bullet trains in Brazil: progress or white elephant?
by Thalita Carrico
Financial Times - Blog Beyondbrics, 10/02/2013

Brazil’s government knows that if there is a silver bullet to solve the country’s mounting transport infrastructure problem, it is rail. That is why it is pushing with increasing determination a proposal to build not just one but possibly several bullet trains in the country.

The government said this week that if private sector bidders were reluctant to take on the public works for a bullet train it is planning between the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Campinas, it will provide a state guarantee for the project.

The comments came as the government revealed it is also evaluating three other possible high-speed railways – one connecting São Paulo to Curitiba, southern Brazil, another to Belo Horizonte in the southeast, and a third to the Triângulo Mineiro, a wealthy area west in Minas Gerais, the same state as Belo Horizonte, according to local newspaper Valor Econômico.

The first instinct is to decry such ambitious plans, especially given that Brazil is struggling to implement far more modest infrastructure proposals. But the idea is not as crazy as it sounds. Brazil must be the only continental country in the world that does not have passenger train connections between major cities. Foreigners are often shocked to learn that the travel options inside Brazil do not include rail, and even more horrified when they have to pay the exorbitant prices that airlines charge for tickets at short notice or they have to face kilometres of traffic jams deep in the interior.

The US, India, China and Russia – other countries of Brazil’s scale – have national passenger train systems. In Brazil, by contrast, rail was abandoned in the 1970s in favour of the car, with what little remained of the rail network used for cargo transportation.

The problem, of course, is that train services are not cheap to build and high-speed rail, especially in Brazil, is even more precipitously expensive. The bullet train between Rio, São Paulo and Campinas is expected to cost about R$60bn. Critics of the proposal point out this could be better spent in São Paulo, where for half that, the local government is looking to build 27 kilometres of desperately needed metro lines with new 33 stations by the end of next year. A city of 20m people, São Paulo has only 74kms of metro lines, leaving the city locked up with traffic every morning and night.

Yet, there is no single answer. Yes, Brazil needs more metros. But it also needs inter-city passenger railways to provide another form of cost-efficient transportation and avoid depending too heavily on roads and airports. Yes, bullet trains may seem a gold-plated option for a country with so many competing infrastructure needs. But any train between Brazil’s far flung major cities would need to be fast to be competitive with air travel.

The critics are right to press the government on cost because they know corruption and inefficiency will lead to money-wasting. But petty squabbling should not get in the way of vision. If Brazil wants to develop, it needs to think on a scale appropriate to a country of its size.

Yalta, 1945: neste dia, na Historia (NYT)

On Feb. 11, 1945, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement during World War II.

Depois de Tordesilhas, em 1493, o segundo grande acordo diplomatico que dividiu o mundo entre "grandes" potencias. Este duraria quase meio seculo. O primeiro durou poucos anos.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Big 3 Doom Nazism and Reich Militarism; Agree on Freed Lands and Oaks Voting; Convoke United Nations in U.S. April 25
YALTA PARLEY ENDS
Unified Blows at Reich, Policing Spheres and Reparations Shaped
FRANCE TO GET ROLE
Broader Polish, Yugoslav Regimes Guaranteed -- Curzon Line Adopted
By Lansing Warren
Special to The New York Times

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Monday Meat Ban Flouted Again; Cafes Exhibit and Serve Steaks

Elliott Roosevelt Made Brigadier By Senate 53 to 11, on War Record

Washington, Feb. 12 -- Allied decisions sealing the doom of Nazi Germany and German militarism, coordinating military plans for Germany's occupation and control and maintaining order and establishing popular governments in liberated countries were signed yesterday by President Roosevelt, Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill near Yalta in the Crimea, the White House announced today.

The conference, held in the summer palace of former Czar Nicholas II on the black Sea shore, also called for a United Nations security conference in San Francisco on April 25.

The parleys, hitherto shrouded in secrecy except for a brief outline of the agenda issued Feb. 7, were held day and night from Feb. 4 until the final signatures were affixed. The announcement did not refer to President Roosevelt's future movements except that he had left the Crimea.

Main Points of Accord

Major decisions of the conference include:

(1) Plans for new blows at the heart of Germany from the east, west, north and south.

(2) Agreement for occupation by the three Allies, each of a separate zone, as Germany is invaded, and an invitation to France to take over a zone and participate as a fourth member of the Control Commission.

(3) Reparations in kind to be paid by Germany for damages, to be set by an Allied commission. The reparations commission, which will establish the type and amount of payments by Germany, will have its headquarters in Moscow. [Secretary of State Stettinius and Ambassador Harriman arrived in Moscow Monday.]

(4) Settlement of questions left undecided at the conference at Dumbarton Oaks and decision to call a United Nations conference at San Francisco April 25 to prepare the charter for a general international organization to maintain peace and security.

(5) Specific agreements to widen the scope of the present Governments in Poland and Yugoslavia and an understanding to keep order and establish Governments in liberated countries conforming to the popular will and the principles of the Atlantic Charter.

(6) A general declaration of determination to maintain Allied unity for peace.

German People Apart

The statement announced common policies for enforcing unconditional surrender and imposing Nazi Germany's doom. The document draws a distinction between the Nazi system, laws and institutions, the German General Staff and its militarism, which will be relentlessly wiped out, and the German people.

"It is not our purpose," it declared," to destroy the people of Germany, but only when nazism and militarism have been extirpated will there be hope for a decent life for Germans, and a place for them in the community of nations."

Until this conference the Allies had laid down no iron-clad program for the control and complete reorganization of Germany. Military plans will be made known only "as we execute them," said the statement, and the surrender terms "not until the final defeat has been accomplished."

Coordinated administration and control has been provided in a central Control Commission, which will be established with headquarters in Berlin. Part of its work will be to insist on the destruction of all German military equipment, elimination or control of all German industry that could be used for military production, the punishment of war criminals and the wiping out of all Nazi institutions from the German economic and cultural life.

The document mentioned no discussion of plans in the Far eastern theatre of the war or any understanding with the Soviet Union for entry into the war against Japan, but the fact that the date for the United Nations conference, April 25, comes one day after the date determining of a renewal of the Russo-Japanese agreement was remarked as significant.

That San Francisco had been chosen as the site for the next security conference of the United Nations, along with the date, aroused considerable interest here because of the city's remoteness from the European theatre of war and its position nearer the Far Eastern theatre.

New Cabinet Indicated

Special dispositions with regard to Poland include the widening of the present Provisional Government to include other democratic leaders in Poland and abroad.

The agreement sets the Polish eastern boundary, with a few alterations in favor of Poland, along the Curzon Line and recognizes that Poland must acquire substantial territory in the north and west but leaves these decisions to the peace conference. This is the first official mention to confirm the Allies' contemplation of a general peace conference.

With regard to the conflict for power in Yugoslavia the Allies have agreed that Marshal Tito and Dr. Ivan Subasitch shall set up the Government they have proposed but to include former members of the Parliament who did not collaborate with the enemy.

These Governments, it is provided, will be succeeded by those formed in conformity with desires expressed in popular elections and in the spirit of the Atlantic Charter. The statement does not deal specifically with the situation in Greece or other countries but declares that the conference also made a general review of other Balkan questions.

Fascism to Be Uprooted

In a declaration on the liberated areas, the Allies announced the intention of consulting in the interests of the liberated peoples and to cooperate in rebuilding the national economic life in these countries. Vestiges of nazism and fascism are to be destroyed, and the Allies will cooperate to establish internal peace, carry relief and form interim governments broadly representative in the Axis satellite states as well as in liberated Allied countries.

An important feature of the international security discussions was contained in the announcements that the three powers had reached agreement on the disputed question of voting procedure, which prevented completion of the work at Dumbarton Oaks. No indication of the solution was given.

The three Chiefs of State were assisted by their Foreign Ministers, chiefs of military staffs and numerous other experts, as was the case in the previous three-power meetings. Besides Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr., President Roosevelt was accompanied by Harry L. Hopkins, his special assistant, and Justice James F. Byrnes, Director of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion.

Other United States delegates included W. Averell Harriman, Ambassador to the Soviet Union; H. Freeman Matthews, the State Department's Director of European Affairs; Alger Hiss, Deputy Director of Special Political Affairs, and Charles E. Bohlen, assistant to the Secretary of State.

Throughout the Conference President Roosevelt occupied apartments in the former palace of the Czars. Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill were housed in separate establishments near by.

Three women were with the delegations. Though they did not participate in the discussions, they were received as conference guests. They were Mrs. Anna Boettiger, daughter of President and Mrs. Roosevelt; Mrs. Sarah Oliver, daughter of Prime Minister and Mrs. Churchill, and Kathleen Harriman, daughter of the Ambassador to Moscow.

President Roosevelt's party also included Edward J. Flynn of New York, who did not attend conference meetings but was invited as a personal friend when Mr. Roosevelt learned that he was planning a visit to Moscow.

Leahy Also in Party

Others in the President's personal party were Admiral William D. Leahy, chief of staff to the President; Mr. Byrnes, Vice Admirals Ross T. McIntyre and Wilson Brown, Maj. Gen. Edwin M. Watson and Stephen Early, the President's secretary.

President Roosevelt, whose movements have been obscured by censorship for more than three weeks, left Washington for the Crimea conference almost immediately after his inauguration ceremonies on Jan. 20. The details of the voyage were not made public, but it was revealed that the President met Prime Minister Churchill on the island of Malta, which the British and American delegations reached Feb. 2. President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill made a prolonged exchange of views and there were formal discussions between the British and United States Military chiefs of staff.

President Roosevelt left Malta the night of Feb. 2, going by air direct to Yalta, where he was met by Foreign Commissar Vyacheslaff M. Molotoff, who extended greetings for Marshal Stalin.

The Presidential party proceeded along the Black Sea shore two miles southwest to Livadia, where stands the magnificent Summer Palace.

Meetings began the next day on the arrival of Marshal Stalin, who flew from his headquarters on the Russian front, where the Silesian Offensive was just getting under way. The delegates met either in committees or as a group. Besides daily meetings of the three heads of Governments and the Foreign Secretaries, separate meetings of the Foreign Secretaries and their advisers were held daily.

The Foreign Secretaries arranged for regular conferences every three of four months. The meetings will be held in rotation in the three capitals, the first to be called in London after the San Francisco meeting.

At the close of the conference President Roosevelt presented to Marshal Stalin a number of decorations awarded by the United States to military men in the Red Army. Those to be decorated will receive the rank of commander in the Legion of Merit. They include Marshal Alexander M. Vasilevsky, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army; Air Chief Marshal Alexander A. Novikoff, commanding general of the Red Air Forces; Gen. A. K. Repin, Chief of the Soviet Military Mission to the United States; Lieutenant General Brendal, Lieutenant Colonel Krolenko, Major General Levanovich, Major General Slavin, Deputy Chief of the Red Army Staff, and Colonel Byaz.

The decorations were given in recognition of distinguished services in connection with their cooperation in American Air Force shuttle-bombing operations in Germany.

The first news of the historic consultation at Yalta was issued at the White House by Jonathan Daniels, administrative assistant to the President, who opened his announcement to the impatient correspondents with the statement: "This is it."

Announcement of the Allied report on the conference made in the Senate was greeted with cheers, which continued while the upper house adjourned.

Marajas, mandarins, atencao: deu no New York Times...

Uma vergonha agora estampada ao mundo.
Talvez provoque uma minicomocao nos meios oficiais nos proximos tres dias, ate a denuncia de um novo escandalo...
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Brazil, Where a Judge Made $361,500 in a Month, Fumes Over Pay
By SIMON ROMERO
The New York Times, February 10, 2013

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — There are many ways of striking it rich in Brazil, but one strategy may come as a particular surprise in today’s economic climate: securing a government job.

While civil servants in Europe and the United States have had their pay slashed or jobs eliminated altogether, some public employees in Brazil are pulling down salaries and benefits that put their counterparts in developed countries to shame.

One clerk at a court in Brasília, the capital, earned $226,000 in a year — more than the chief justice of the nation’s Supreme Court. Likewise, São Paulo’s highway department paid one of its engineers $263,000 a year, more than the nation’s president.

Then there were the 168 public employees in São Paulo’s auditing court who received monthly salaries of at least $12,000, and sometimes as much as $25,000 — more than the mayor of the city, Brazil’s largest, was earning. Indeed, the mayor at the time joked that he planned to apply for a job in the parking garage of the City Council building when his term ended in December after the São Paulo legislature revealed that one parking valet earned $11,500 a month.

As Brazil’s once-booming economy stalls, these “super salaries,” as they have become known here, are feeding newfound resentment over inequality in the nation’s unwieldy bureaucracies. Powerful unions for certain classes of civil servants, strong legal protections for government workers, a swelling public sector that has created many new well-paying jobs, and generous benefits that can be exploited by insiders have all made Brazil’s public sector a coveted bastion of privilege.

But the spoils are not distributed equally. While thousands of public employees have exceeded constitutional limits on their pay, many more are scraping to get by. Across the country, schoolteachers and police officers generally earn little more than $1,000 a month, and sometimes less, exacerbating the country’s pressing security concerns and long-faltering education system.

“The salary distortions in our public bureaucracy have reached a point where they are an utter and absolute disgrace,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a watchdog group that scrutinizes government budgets.

Privileged public employees, once called maharajahsin a nod to the opulence of India’s old nobility, have long existed in Brazil. But as Brazil nourishes ambitions of climbing into the ranks of developed nations, a new freedom of information law requires public institutions to reveal the wages of their employees, from rank-and-file civil servants like clerks to cabinet ministers.

Though some officials are resisting the new rules, new disclosures at public institutions have revealed case after case of public employees earning more than Supreme Court justices, who made about $13,360 a month in 2012, an amount established in the Constitution as the highest salary that public employees can receive. In the Senate and Chamber of Deputies alone, more than 1,500 employees earned more than the constitutional limit, according to Congresso em Foco, a watchdog group.

State judges can do even better. One in São Paulo recently pulled down $361,500 in a month. That is not a typo: some judges in Brazil are paid more in a single month than their counterparts in high-income countries earn in an entire year. (The top annual salaries for judges in New York State are climbing to around $198,600.)

The recent revelations, including of an auditor in Minas Gerais State who earned $81,000 in one month and a librarian who got $24,000 in another, have spurred a strong reaction in some quarters. Joaquim Barbosa, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, revoked the super-salaries of the 168 employees in São Paulo’s auditing court in December. Another fed-up federal judge issued an injunction in October suspending payments to 11 cabinet ministers, but the attorney general said he would seek to overturn the ruling.

Some historians blame Portugal, the former colonial ruler, for creating a powerful public bureaucracy in which mandarins wield great influence and earn outsize salaries. Brazil’s byzantine judicial system also provides ways for certain senior civil servants to circumvent constitutional pay limits. Some collect pensions from previous stints in government — often their full salary at the time of retirement — after shifting into another high-paying public job.

Then there are the extra allowances for housing and food, the generous reimbursement rates for distance driven on the job and, of course, the loopholes. One provision dating to 1955 enables some public employees to take a three-month leave every five years. But those who forgo the leave, now intended to encourage workers to take postgraduate courses, can seek to collect extra money instead.

Some high-ranking members of the governing Workers Party, including Finance Minister Guido Mantega, have been able to get around the constitutional limit by receiving an extra $8,000 a month for serving on the boards of state enterprises, and many legislators are entitled to annual bonuses of more than $26,000 so they can purchase attire like business suits.

Still, in the developing world, Brazil’s Civil Service is envied in some aspects for its professionalism. Rigorous exams for an array of coveted government jobs generally weed out unprepared applicants. Pockets of excellence, like some public research organizations, have won acclaim in areas like tropical agriculture.

But some taxpayers fume over the privileges in the public sector, whose ranks swelled by 30 percent in the past decade to encompass 9.4 million employees in a country of 194 million. Powerful unions stymie efforts to fire civil servants, making such jobs exceptionally stable and well protected.

While Brazil’s government comfortably finances itself through tax collection and issuing debt, services like education and sewage treatment remain woeful. Despite imposing high taxes, Brazil ranked last among 30 rich industrialized and developing countries in the quality of services citizens get for the taxes they pay, according to the nonprofit Brazilian Institute of Tax Planning.

Some lawmakers have come under personal scrutiny. Fernando Collor de Mello, a former president who once denounced the maharajahs and is now a senator, was recently found to be spending more than $30,000 a month of public money to employ a gardener and two archivists.

In Maranhão, one of Brazil’s poorest states, legislators have granted themselves the equivalent of 18 monthly salaries — each of about $10,000 — in a single year, justifying the move as a cost-of-living allowance.

The new freedom of information law, supported by President Dilma Rousseff, who earns about $174,000 a year, is intended to expose such practices. Not surprisingly, some entrenched government interests have dragged their feet in complying with the law.

When Congress finally decided in 2012 to allow people to obtain the salary information of its employees, it also required them to find the name of each employee and submit it online. In other words, if someone wanted the information on the legislature’s 25,000-strong work force, then that person had to independently identify them and submit 25,000 separate online requests.

If only it were that easy here in São Paulo. One clerk at the state’s high court, Ivete Sartório, was reportedly paid about $115,000 after convincing her superiors that she should be compensated for not taking leaves of absence. But when asked recently about her wages, a spokesman for the court, Rômulo Pordeus, said that Ms. Sartório’s “matriculation number” was needed to request the information.

When asked how any curious taxpayer could get that number, he replied that it was in Ms. Sartório’s possession, and that he did not want to bother her about it. “I’m not going to ask for her matriculation number, because it’s annoying, understand?” Mr. Pordeus said. “No one likes to say how much they earn.”

Lis Horta Moriconi and Taylor Barnes contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/world/americas/brazil-seethes-over-public-officials-super-salaries.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y&_r=0&pagewanted=all

Brasil-Venezuela: respaldo ao governo bolivariano...

El canciller venezolano, Elías Jaúa, y su par brasileño, Antonio Patriota, en Caracas.

Brasil-Venezuela

Venezuela recibe respaldo de Brasil mientras Chávez se mantiene en Cuba

Infolatam/Efe
Caracas, 10 de febrero de 2013

Las claves

• El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores venezolano dijo que es "ya es una decisión" del Gobierno venezolano apoyar a Brasil en sus aspiraciones de dirigir la OMC.
• Con respecto al Mercosur, el canciller venezolano agradeció a Brasil por asesorar y apoyar a Venezuela en el proceso de adecuación de su ingreso al mecanismo del que forma parte como miembro pleno desde julio del año pasado.

La visita del canciller brasileño, Antonio Patriota, a Caracas, dejó establecido el respaldo que el país amazónico da a Venezuela y a sus instituciones mientras su jefe de Estado, Hugo Chávez, se recupera “lentamente” en Cuba de una operación a la que fue sometido hace dos meses.
En esta segunda visita de Patriota a Caracas en tres meses, el canciller brasileño aseguró que los empresarios de su país están interesados en invertir en Venezuela, emocionados con el ingreso de esta nación al Mercosur y confiados en la recuperación de su gobernante.
“Sobre la enfermedad de Chávez lo que si manifestamos, el gobierno y las sociedades (de Brasil) es una gran confianza en su recuperación y en las instituciones de Venezuela”, dijo Patriota durante una rueda de prensa ofrecida junto a su par venezolano, Elías Jaua.
Patriota fue la primera visita de un alto funcionario extranjero que Chávez recibió tras su victoria en las elecciones del 7 de octubre en las que fue ratificado para ejercer su tercer mandato (2013-2019).
En ese entonces Chávez destacó que la visita de Patriota “apenas a pocos días de las elecciones” era un gesto “muy significativo” para Venezuela y “un poderoso mensaje de Brasil” y comentó que durante la reunión que sostuvieron conversaron sobre el financiamiento de proyectos en marcha y de otros de “alto impacto”.
En esta oportunidad Patriota y Jaua repasaron las relaciones bilaterales en materia comercial y especialmente en el marco del Mercorsur, así como la solicitud de apoyo de Brasil a Venezuela en el lanzamiento de su candidatura para dirigir la Organización Mundial de Comercio (OMC).
El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores venezolano dijo que es “ya es una decisión” del Gobierno venezolano apoyar a Brasil en sus aspiraciones de dirigir la OMC.
Otro de los temas que abordaron fue el “viejo sueño” de integración por el norte de Brasil y el sur de Venezuela impulsado por el expresidente brasileño Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva y la actual mandataria, Dilma Rousseff y Chávez.
“Hemos acordado una reunión para ir dándole cuerpo”, señaló el ministro venezolano, al destacar la necesidad de una “agenda concreta” que permita impulsar mecanismos de intercambio comercial y encadenamiento productivo entre los dos países por esa zona.
Con respecto al Mercosur, el canciller venezolano agradeció a Brasil por asesorar y apoyar a Venezuela en el proceso de adecuación de su ingreso al mecanismo del que forma parte como miembro pleno desde julio del año pasado.
Jaua, nombrado el mes pasado en el cargo, indicó que “el desafío más importante de exportación” para Venezuela está en Mercosur, mecanismo formado además por Brasil, Argentina, Uruguay y el suspendido Paraguay, y del que se convirtió en miembro pleno en julio del año pasado.

Se ate o Papa renunciou, o presidente do Congresso tambem pode renunciar...

Somos impactados, nesta manha de segunda-feira 11 de fevereiro, por esta notícia:

Bento XVI anuncia que vai deixar pontificado no dia 28 de fevereiro

Segundo ele, renúncia ocorre por causa de sua idade avançada - 85 anos - e por não ter força para cumprir deveres; é a 1ª vez que um papa renuncia em quase 600 anos.

Pensando bem, é uma decisão sensata, tomada por um homem sensato. Não podendo mais assumir os encargos, as milhares de tarefas, as chateações do cargo, um intelectual que se tornou papa por escolha de homens de sua corporação, resolve, decide, conclui, racionalmente, que não pode mais continuar a assumir os muitos encargos ligados ao seu ofício terreno e corporativo.

Pois no Brasil também, mas por outras razões, um homem eleito pelos seus pares de corporação, mas impossibilitado, moralmente, talvez penalmente, de continuar a exercer o cargo, deveria renunciar, por incapacidade moral, ética, jurídica, de continuar à frente de uma instituição que pode fazer muito mal ao Brasil e aos brasileiros.
Vejamos qual vai ser a sua atitude, mas eu não espero nada semelhante ao papa, um homem digno.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida