The government of Fernando Henriq ue Cardoso (FHC) promotes, in the expression of Ivo Lesbaupin, professor of the Federal University of Río de Janeiro, the dismantling of the nation. Petrobrás, Furnes, Bank of Brazil, Federal Economic Fund, and the Post Office escape privatization thanks only to the energy crisis. If the crisis worsens, there is an increased risk that the PSDB (Social Democratic Party of Brazil) will enter defeated into the presidential contention of 2002. It is not the fault of the drought nor of Saint Peter that Brazil is struggling blindly. It is the fault of the irresponsible process of privatizations. As in California, here also the companies that assumed control of the energy for the country did not invest in the sector, stubbornly obtaining more profit with fewer expenses. In the privatization of the national assets, the federal government threw out the baby with the bath water. How can I explain to my foreign friends that public money finances, through BNDES (National Bank of Economic and Social Development) the buying of what is sold? How can I make them understand that the government spent R$21 billion to reorganize Telebrás and sold it for R$22.2 billion? Everything rises Appointed with the function of auctioneer, the government proclaimed that privatization would bring a reduction in rates for public services, thanks to competition. The exact opposite has occurred. Rates have risen from 40 to 400% above inflation, while salaries remain frozen. The distributive effects of the Real Plan have ended, the project Brazil Advances has receded to its beginnings, and now the Alvarada Port is open to seduce the electoral portion for 2002. Since 1994 the official inflation rate is 97.49% according to the IPCA (National Index of Consumer Prices) calculated by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). Prices administered by the government have risen, on the average, by 234.78%, twelve times more than what laborers have earned since that year. Those who earn a minimum wage have had an increase if 177.82% since July of 1994, and now it remains with a floor of R$180, equivalent to U.S. $82—much lower than the U.S. $100 promised by FHC. The prices of the basic subscription and telephone calls have risen 344%; the readjustment in the electric rates have reached 156%; fuel, readjusted three times a year, has increased 199%, the same percentage for the rates of the trains and subways; gas has risen 272.87%; and water, 93.22%. In other words, in the past seven years the increase in rates in relation to salaries was 18 times in the case of telephones; 14 for gas; 10 for gasoline and transportation; 8 for energy; and 5 for water. According to IDEC (Brazilian Institute in Defense of the Consumer), for the consumers of energy of up to 30 kilowatts per month, which is equivalent to five light bulbs turned on for two hours per day, the increase was 321.45% between 1994 and 1999. The Central Bank had made an agreement with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) that it would monitor, to the benefit of the international creditors, an increase in the Brazilian economy of a maximum of 4% in the prices administered by the government during this year. Now it is predicted that the rates will rise 6%, since the government readjusted the contracts of the majority of the private companies, in agreement with the IGP-M (General Index of Market Prices) of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, an index influenced by the rise in commodity. Regime of exception Where is the minimal State? Yes, in fact it exists for the social sphere, in which the insufficient allocations are gobbled up, in large part, by bureaucracy and by corruption. For the owners of capital, however, the maximum State rules, which doesn’t cease creating mechanisms that assure the reduction of taxes to foreign investors and an increase for the Brazilian producers and workers. In political science, the concentration of power in the hands of an individual, without having his or her decisions submitted to the parliament, is called dictatorship. In the country of the euphemism, the regime of exception covers itself under the blanket of transitory measures. Since the soldiers returned to the barracks, the governments of Sarney, Collor, and Itamar have issued 812 transitory measures. Since March of this year, the government of FHC has issued 4,981, equivalent to 66 per month or 3 per working day. Where is the market that should regulate the economic life of the country? It is the government that determines the salaries, taxes, interest rates, exchange, etc. The Brazilian democracy has not yet arrived to the economic sphere. Privatizations and corruption The failure of the privatizations is not a phenomenon unique to Brazil. The English Police should not need to keep Ronald Biggs in prison. There is no longer the risk the he will assault another cashier of the train. Since the English railroad network was privatized, the schedules stopped being precise and accidents increased, since the company which owns it refuses, for economic reasons, to adopt a system of automatic brakes. Is corruption inherent in the means by which Brazil is being governed? This question can be answered only by the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Investigation) of Corruption. It is urgent to clear up the Sivam case, the Proer, the pink file, the petitionaries, the approval of the presidential re-election, the BNDES-Telebras telephone espionage, the Marka and FonteCidam case, the Sudene and the Sudam, and so many other dark clouds that pass over the national panorama. The government, however, has preferred the promiscuous relation with Congress, filing to the CPI of Corruption, to show that it has nothing to fear and hide. Between the public and social debts, the government of FHC chose to fight against the first, without it giving any signs of recession, while the social debt is postponed in a frightening manner, with unemployment favoring the increase in violence and poverty. Brazil doesn’t deserve to contend with Sierra Leone for the title of world champion of social inequality.