ABSTRACT
The election of a centrist as president in 1994 was also encouraging. A Eurobond issued by Petrobras marked the country’s return to international capital markets, while the first investment trust specializing in Brazilian shares was floated on the London market in mid-1992. Conventional wisdom at one point held that Brazil would mimic the performance of those two Latin American superstars, Mexico and Chile. The stock market roller coaster of the 1991–93 period displays this trend, as a deepening domestic recession and confusion over privatization took a heavy toll. Brain drain and poor education resources are, to some extent, endemic in countries that are struggling to develop. Brazil is a small market for these goods, so foreign companies will not be rushing to get in the door even now that the law is rescinded. The poverty-stricken lower classes enjoyed virtually no benefits from the “economic miracle” of the 1970s, and they have suffered disproportionately from Brazil’s recent economic travails.
