ABSTRACT
Brazil projects itself on different screens in different ways. As the largest and only Portuguese-speaking country in Latin America, it is seen as a very specific reality by the many smaller Spanish-speaking neighbors surrounding and bordering upon it. Brazil had in place a comprehensive energy program, but before this could be utilized, the nation saw its dollar reserves rapidly eaten away and the start of borrowing which by has generated a foreign debt of more than $100 billion, the largest in the developing world. After running a negative trade balance through 1980, the country achieved a surplus of US$1.2 billion in 1981. From the preceding description we can begin to appreciate the dynamic character of Brazil's economy. The administration in Brazil embodies a new political model for the nation. There is reason to believe that it will bring with it some overhaul of the old economic model, an update from the 1960s to the 1980s.
