The Economist: "Brazil takes off"

China may be leading the world economy out of recession but Brazil is also on a roll.  It did not avoid the downturn, but was among the last in and the first out.  Its economy is growing again at an annualised rate of 5%.  It should pick up more speed over the next few years as big new deep-sea oilfields come on stream, and as Asian countries still hunger for food and minerals from Brazil's vast and bountiful land.  Forecasts vary, but sometime in the decade after 2014—rather sooner than Goldman Sachs envisaged— Brazil is likely to become the world's fifth-largest economy, overtaking Britain and France.  By 2025 São Paulo will be its fifth-wealthiest city, according to PwC, a consultancy.

~ "Brazil takes off: Now the risk for Latin America’s big success story is hubris," The Economist, November 12, 2009

Marko Papic is bullish on commodities and emerging markets

Commodity producers are cheap, their currencies are cheap, their balance of payments are in surplus...  Last year, do you know what they were doing?  They were jacking up rates!  (other than Turkey)  They were jacking up rates, doing exactly what we taught them to do through IMF and World Bank programs while America was basically printing like the most populist regimes in the world.  So emerging markets took the pain last year, they took the hit of tight monetary policy, they're cheap, their current accounts are in surplus and commodities have risen massively.  Karl Marx could rise from the grave and run Brazil and I'd still buy it!

~ Marko Papic, "Geopolitical Expert Marko Papic on Ukraine, Commodities, and Ignoring the Media Noise," Stansberry Investor Hour, 28:00 mark, January 27, 2022

Anonymous YouTube comment on the influence of Antonia Gramsci in Brazil

I know Gramsci's work very well. I'm from Brazil, and here the education system was entirely dominated by the Gramscists. The process of cultural subversion started in the middle of 60's, after the Military Dictatorship took power. Frustrated for not being their proletarian dictatorship, they saw no other alternative than change their focus to the culture. Decades later, the people educated by this system would self-perpetuate the socialist ideas, because the students of that time would become the professors, journalists, lawyers, judges, and artists of the future ahead. Of course, they did not anticipate that there would be a strong reaction, and the internet helped a lot with that. In Mises words: "Ideas and only Ideas can light the darkness."

~ Anonymous YouTube comment, July 20, 2020

Eike Batista on his biggest concern

My biggest concern? Well, none.

~Eike Batista, chairman and CEO, EBX Group, CNBC interview, May 4, 2011

Eike Batista on his quest to become the world's richest man

I have created 5 companies that have in them, embedded resources, worth $2 trillion, at very low cost to produce them. So, it's just a question of time [before he becomes the world's richest man] okay? So, Mr. Slim, I'm sorry, I don't know if I'm going to pass him on the right side or the left side but it's going to happen.

I haven't finished drilling yet. At today's prices we have $2.3 trillion of underlying assets.

~Eike Batista, chairman and CEO, EBX Group, CNBC interview, May 4, 2011

Eike Batista on Brazil's new president Dilma Rousseff

Listen, thanks [sic] God we have Dilma [Rousseff] running our country because she wants to, President Lula's legacy was to keep inflation under control because during his 8 years, the Brazilian worker had a 40% increase in his purchasing power. So, inflation control was crucial because before I know inflation eroded the purchasing power of the Brazilian worker.

She will preserve this legacy of keeping inflation rates under control, that's why interest rates are 13%. So, we are a country where inflation is demand-driven. The reason we increase interest rates, use nominal monetary tools, is unique in the world, we are a demand-driven economy. She has to cool it down, cool it down, with high interest because there are bottlenecks in infrastructure so after maybe, 3 years from now, we can go above 5 or 6% [inflation] again if we de-bottleneck the country.

~Eike Batista, chairman and CEO, EBX Group, CNBC interview, May 4, 2011

Eike Batista on the safe corporate legal environment in Brazil

Respect to contracts, right to law, and everything that you have acquired today is grandfathered. Let's say, whatever assets my company has today, in my mining company, my oil company, they are concessions. For instance, in oil they last for 28 years, they're grandfathered. This is very important. The government will not change the rules on what I already have. I think for investors this is very important. They may change the rules going forward -- increase taxes, royalties -- but what I have today, I have today.

~Eike Batista, chairman and CEO, EBX Group, CNBC interview, May 4, 2011

Eike Batista on the reasonable tax rates in Brazil

Countries like Brazil and Colombia have allowed the private sector to own national oil company or resource company assets. See, this is something people have to understand. The taxation, the government take, is very reasonable. In Brazil, the government take is 52%. In Angola, which is in Africa, it's 85[%]. So, it's really wealth creation for our shareholders.

~Eike Batista, chairman and CEO, EBX Group, CNBC interview, May 4, 2011

Eike Batista, 8th richest man in the world, and his 'idiot-proof' oil assets

The difference between us is really being in the shallow waters of Brazil. So, shallow waters implies low cost production which is spectacular. If oil is today $120, $18 [cost per barrel extracted] is an 85% EBITDA margin. We call it 'idiot-proof assets.'

~Eike Batista, chairman and CEO, EBX Group, CNBC interview, May 4, 2011