The New New World

[Plane]

In 2008, Brazil became a net external creditor and two ratings agencies awarded investment grade status to its debt. After record growth in 2007 and 2008, the onset of the global financial crisis hit Braxil in September 2008. Brazil's currency and its stock market - Bovespa - saw large swings as foreign investors pulled resources out of Brazil. Brazil experienced two quarters of recession, as global demand for Brazil's commodity-based exports dwindled and external credit dried up. However, Brazil was one of the first emerging markets to begin a recovery. Consumer and investor confidence revived and GDP growth returned to positive in the second quarter, 2009. The Central Bank expects growth of 5% for 2010.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/br.html

[Plane]

 

Reforms started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of collectivized agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment. Annual inflows of foreign direct investment rose to nearly $108 billion in 2008. China has generally implemented reforms in a gradualist or piecemeal fashion. In recent years, China has re-invigorated its support for leading state-owned enterprises in sectors it considers important to "economic security," explicitly looking to foster globally competitive national champions. After keeping its currency tightly linked to the US dollar for years, China in July 2005 revalued its currency by 2.1% against the US dollar and moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies. Cumulative appreciation of the renminbi against the US dollar since the end of the dollar peg was more than 20% by late 2008, but the exchange rate has remained virtually pegged since the onset of the global financial crisis. The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis that adjusts for price differences, China in 2009 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is still lower middle-income. The Chinese government faces numerous economic development challenges, including: (a) reducing its high domestic savings rate and correspondingly low domestic demand through increased corporate transfers and a strengthened social safety net; (b) sustaining adequate job growth for tens of millions of migrants and new entrants to the work force; (c) reducing corruption and other economic crimes; and (d) containing environmental damage and social strife related to the economy's rapid transformation. Economic development has been more rapid in coastal provinces than in the interior, and approximately 200 million rural laborers and their dependents have relocated to urban areas to find work. One demographic consequence of the "one child" policy is that China is now one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world. Deterioration in the environment - notably air pollution, soil erosion, and the steady fall of the water table, especially in the north - is another long-term problem. China continues to lose arable land because of erosion and economic development. In 2006, China announced that by 2010 it would decrease energy intensity 20% from 2005 levels. In 2009, China announced that by 2020 it would reduce carbon intensity 40% from 2005 levels. The Chinese government seeks to add energy production capacity from sources other than coal and oil, and is focusing on nuclear and other alternative energy development. In 2009, the global economic downturn reduced foreign demand for Chinese exports for the first time in many years. The government vowed to continue reforming the economy and emphasized the need to increase domestic consumption in order to make China less dependent on foreign exports for GDP growth in the future.
 
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html

[Xavier_Onassis]

Here's how Brazil has done lately:
EWZ Brazil index ETF  for the past month, three months, 6 mos. year ending 4/30/2010:-1.9, 11.7, 8.3, 66.7
S&P 500 for same period  (VFNIX)                                                                       : 1.6,11.0,15.6,  38.8
Brazil is generally rated Aggressive, S&P 500, a moderate risk.

It appears that the leftist Lula, like the PRC politburo, understands how capitalism better than the leaders of officially capitalism nations.

[Plane]

a stock exchange that is 18th largest in the world; and modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. At the end of 2007, South Africa began to experience an electricity crisis. State power supplier Eskom encountered problems with aged plants, necessitating "load-shedding" cuts to residents and businesses in the major cities. Growth was robust from 2004 to 2008 as South Africa reaped the benefits of macroeconomic stability and a global commodities boom, but began to slow in the second half of 2008 due to the global financial crisis' impact on commodity prices and demand. GDP fell nearly 2% in 2009. Unemployment remains high and outdated infrastructure has constrained growth. Daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty, lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups, and a shortage of public transportation. South Africa's former economic policy was fiscally conservative, focusing on controlling inflation, and attaining a budget surplus. The current government largely follows the same prudent policies, but must contend with the impact of the global crisis and is facing growing pressure from special interest groups to use state-owned enterprises to deliver basic services to low-income areas and to increase job growth. More than one-quarter of South Africa's population currently receives social grants.
 
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html

[Plane]

Here's how Brazil has done lately:
EWZ Brazil index ETF  for the past month, three months, 6 mos. year ending 4/30/2010:-1.9, 11.7, 8.3, 66.7
S&P 500 for same period  (VFNIX)                                                                       : 1.6,11.0,15.6,  38.8
Brazil is generally rated Aggressive, S&P 500, a moderate risk.

It appears that the leftist Lula, like the PRC politburo, understands how capitalism better than the leaders of officially capitalism nations.

hahahahahahahaha

True , socialism still appeals , so it gets talked about even by people who do not intend to use any.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The campaign by Lula to end hunger in Brazil has been a bigger success than anything else ever done in Brazil.

China is only partly capitalist, and has achieved a growth rate of around 9% for a longer period of time than any capitalist nation. Perhaps the lesson of the Great Leap Forward was a really bad example. What NOT to do.