Brazil
Brazil Stocks Rebound From Protests With Sao Paulo Fix-It Mayor (2013)
Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad steps out of a black sedan in Paraisopolis, a neighborhood of small brick homes, cramped storefronts and narrow streets, in mid-July. He is meeting with residents weeks after about a million Brazilian protesters took to the streets across the nation, railing against corruption, shoddy education and inadequate public transportation.
On this sunny morning, a throng of people surround Haddad at the site of a partially constructed road. As the mayor takes questions for 30 minutes, he indicates to residents that he’s heard the cries of protesters and is responding, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its November issue.
Gilson Rodrigues, president of a community group, points to mounds of construction debris from people who built their own homes. He wants it hauled away.
“OK, so we need to set up a regular system of collection,” says Haddad, dressed in casual pants and a blazer.
A man in a green-checked shirt asks about security: “There’s a stoplight where carjackers trap five or six cars at a time and rob them. We’ve already asked to put a police station there.”
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Brazil Ignores World Cup Costs to Lift Housing (2013)
The Brazilian government isn’t letting an economic slowdown, the World Cup or the Olympics get in the way of its efforts to help everyone from slum dwellers to young professionals buy homes.
President Dilma Rousseff is using federal subsidies and state-bank loans to boost housing after economic expansion slowed for a second year in 2012 and mortgage growth declined. Home price gains are also decelerating after rising 58 percent since 2010.
“The market is trying to correct itself” and “the government is throwing more money at it to keep it expanding,” said Adolfo Sachsida, an economist in Brasilia at the Institute for Applied Economic Research, a federal government agency that evaluates public policy. “This market employs a lot of people and they want to keep it heated so employment doesn’t drop.”