Bus driver Luiz Bezerra used to have just one thought on mind as he climbed the crumbling steps to Cantagalo every evening. It was this one thought that drove him on far more than the oppressive humidity or the sweat beading on his forehead: “How will my wife, our two daughters and I survive the night?” Cantagalo, a slum clinging to a slope above the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, could only be considered picturesque if viewed from the safe distance of a tourist helicopter. It is poetic only in its name, which means “the crowing of the rooster.”
On every street corner of this favela, a Brazilian term for “slum,” men stood around dealing drugs and settling their differences with automatic weapons. Gangsters raped young women, mugged the elderly, controlled the neighborhood and stifled any form of public order with their violent excesses.
These days, though, Bezerra has different concerns, ones that can be summed up neatly in two key phrases: “garbage collection” and “zip codes.” Now his life revolves around small daydreams instead of nightmares.
“I’m sure all this isn’t very exciting for you,” says this man with graying hair. He’s sitting in his workroom, where a dollhouse-sized model apartment with a miniature couch and built-in kitchen speaks to his ascent to the middle class. “It’s not that exciting for me either, actually. But, believe me, for the first time in a long time, we ordinary people are taking part in Brazil’s boom and, for the first time, we’re experiencing hope.”
Tag Archives for economy
German Austerity’s Lutheran Core
Steven Ozment sees the spirit of Martin Luther at work in Angela Merkel’s policies.
Illustration by Miles Donovan, images by Lucas Cranach/Hulton Archive – Getty Images, and Markus Schreiber/Associated Press
Even today Germany, though religiously diverse and politically secular, defines itself and its mission through the writings and actions of the 16th century reformer, who left a succinct definition of Lutheran society in his treatise “The Freedom of a Christian,” which he summarized in two sentences: “A Christian is a perfectly free Lord of all, subject to none, and a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all.”
Consider Luther’s view on charity and the poor. He made the care of the poor an organized, civic obligation by proposing that a common chest be put in every German town; rather than skimp along with the traditional practice of almsgiving to the needy and deserving native poor, Luther proposed that they receive grants, or loans, from the chest. Each recipient would pledge to repay the borrowed amount after a timely recovery and return to self-sufficiency, thereby taking responsibility for both his neighbors and himself. This was love of one’s neighbor through shared civic responsibility, what the Lutherans still call “faith begetting charity.”
How little has changed in 500 years. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, a born-and-baptized daughter of an East German Lutheran pastor, clearly believes the age-old moral virtues and remedies are the best medicine for the euro crisis. She has no desire to press a secular ideology, let alone an institutional religious faith, on her country, but her politics draws unmistakably from an austere and self-sacrificing, yet charitable and fair, Protestantism.
Go North, Young Man
As America declines, Canada becomes the land of opportunity for young Americans. (HT: TGOTCH)
Economic woes in the U.S. are driving Americans across the northern border in near-record numbers as they seek better job opportunities and cheaper education in Canada, according to the latest federal government figures obtained by CTV News.
Ottawa approved 34,185 visas for U.S residents last year alone — a figure that falls just short of the all-time record of 35,060 approved visas in 2010.
“The number one problem in the U.S. economy is unemployment, so it’s natural you’re going to see more young Canadians coming back from the States, and young Americans pursuing economic opportunity here,” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said.
Immigration officials say the slight drop in visa approvals last year was attributed to the rigid applicant screening process and strict rules. Visas are only granted to Americans with pre-arranged jobs and students who are welcomed by cash-strapped Canadian universities.
Recession, Unemployment Drive Americans North
“Go north, young man / woman!“
Economic woes in the U.S. are driving Americans across the northern border in near-record numbers as they seek better job opportunities and cheaper education in Canada, according to the latest federal government figures obtained by CTV News.
Ottawa approved 34,185 visas for U.S residents last year alone — a figure that falls just short of the all-time record of 35,060 approved visas in 2010.
Globalism Is Not A Conservative Value
If Romney wishes to overcome this attack, he will not follow the example of Kevin Williamson of National Review, who was indignant at the suggestion that American jobs should remain in America. Any such concerns, Williamson wrote, reflect “xenophobia,” “backward, ignorant chauvinism,” and the presumably racist views of “economically illiterate yokels” who worry about “Poor desperate Third World brown types” taking American jobs. By contrast, enlightened people like Williamson realize that corporations that send jobs overseas are actually engaging in “collective, coordinated global cooperation to solve the world’s most pressing problems.”
The jackass and the elephant, are ultimately indistinguishable, when it comes to governing…
How Albertan Oil Sands are Killing Ontarian Manufacturing Jobs
About ‘Dutch Disease‘. (Hat Tip: Ferd)
It seems a lot of people don’t know what Dutch Disease is. Here’s the short.
Dutch disease is when you sell a lot of resources and that makes your currency increase in value. So if you discover a lot of oil, or oil becomes a lot more valuable because of a shortage so that you can produce tons of oil from the tar sands, you can experience Dutch Disease.
The consequence of your currency being worth more is that products you manufacture cost more for anyone outside your country. So if Americans want to buy Canadian goods, it costs them more when the US and Canadian dollar are trading at about even than when the Canadian dollar cost only 80 cents American.
If something costs more, people will buy less of it, or they will stop buying from you entirely and buy from someone else who is cheaper.
Pretty straight-forward, even for non-economists.
1 in 2 New Graduates are Jobless or Underemployed
The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.
A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge.
Young adults with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that’s confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.
Why the U.S. Economy Is Biased Against Men
An Atlantic article that could have been a manosphere blog post! (Hat tip: Ray Sawhill)
You’ve just landed on Planet Zuto.
The Intergalactic Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (IEEOC) has sent you to determine whether Zuto’s economy is fair to its two sexes: vozems and zems. Your boss suggests you’ll probably find sexism against the vozems.
But your first discovery is that 60 vozems graduate from college for every 40 zems. You discover clues as to why. Despite the under-representation of zems, many scholarships are set aside for vozems, few for zems. The curriculum accentuates vozems’ accomplishments, zems’ failings. Student groups are funded to encourage vozems, for example, Future BusinessVozems, far fewer for zems.
You beam your first report back to the IEEOC: Zuto U’s appear to be sexist against zems, not vozems.
Next, you examine the Zuto Bureau of Labor Statistics and find that the unemployment rate for vozems is 20% lower than for zems. You are shocked to discover that rather than trying to help zems land work, the government deliberately exacerbates zems’ deficit: vozem-owned businesses get special preferences in landing government contracts and taxpayer-backed small-business loans are set aside for vozems.
You beam back your next report to the IEEOC: More signs of sexism against zems. Your boss responds, “But vozems earn 77 zits for every 100 zems earn!”
Could Europe’s Woes Benefit the USA?
If the euro zone gets caught in a deflationary spiral, real European interest rates will rise and the euro will tend to appreciate.
Under this scenario, Eurozone exports become increasingly less competitive against American exports. At the same time, the struggling European economy will likely reduce it oil imports.
This creates dual positive pressure for the United States which would see cheaper energy at the same time as more robust demand for manufactured goods.
