> how could they intentionally stop a country from developing?
Isn't the petrobras scandal a good example of that? Or before that, the ridiculous culmination of the "steals but does" campaign by Maluf?
My understanding is that the IOF tax is in place precisely as an attempt from the government to keep tabs on the volume of siphoning of currency by politicians to Miami and tax havens elsewhere.
While I'm not particularly convinced of some of accusations thrown around by article, there's at least an attempt to analyze the situation, rather than the usual shrugging off the status quo.
Corruption by itself can't hold a country down, otherwise China would not present such enormous growth during last decades. Human capital is the underlying factor that contributes to corruption, slow economic growth, criminality, etc. I wish there was a straightforward way to improve that, but I am a bit cynical.
Yeah, I think this is what the article was trying to get at, verbose and roundabout as it may have been. My main criticism would be against the idea that there is some consciously coordinated "elite" coming together to sabotage the country. Personally, I tend to think of it more as a tragedy of the commons, where multiple uncoordinated entities simultaneously arrive at the conclusion that exploitation of less privileged/leveraged/savvy entities is an acceptable way to achieve selfish/capitalist goals. One could definitely argue that the Brazilian culture of hustling certainly doesn't help there.
Isn't the petrobras scandal a good example of that? Or before that, the ridiculous culmination of the "steals but does" campaign by Maluf?
My understanding is that the IOF tax is in place precisely as an attempt from the government to keep tabs on the volume of siphoning of currency by politicians to Miami and tax havens elsewhere.
While I'm not particularly convinced of some of accusations thrown around by article, there's at least an attempt to analyze the situation, rather than the usual shrugging off the status quo.