There are two ways to hunt a lion (1): attract it to a snare or sedate it. The first is the safest. The hunter leaves a piece of meat and retires so that the king of the jungle can come closer and, moved by hunger, enter the cage. The second method is risky and temporary. The animal can wake up when least expected and avenge the person who administered the sedative. In the case of Brazil it is necessary to consult the Dragon Hunting Manual. The dragon of inflation. I thought (sweet naiveté!) that dragons were part of childhood fantasy. Until I got in touch with the financial market which, when it comes to zoology, rivals the jogo do bicho[2]. The difference is that there the animals are not so terrifying. Dealing with lions and dragons is risky to the skin and, especially, to the pocket, the most sensitive part of the human body. There are also two ways to kill a dragon. The first, putting the person who feeds him in a cage. Those people who raise prices when interest rates go down. The second, asphyxiating him with high interest rates. The higher they are, the less oxygen there is for him to breathe. The trouble is that, when he falls, the dragon crushes the poor defenseless people who cannot escape his shadow. And it obstructs the country’s path towards the future. The COPOM (Monetary Policy Commission) is as closed as a hunters’ club. It concentrates so much power in its hands that it should be elected through universal suffrage. They are all gentlemen who look grave, not one of them capable of surviving on a minimum salary or belonging to a popular movement. Once a month they meet to analyze the dragon’s reactions: is it asleep? has it demonstrated exaggerated hunger? has its tongue of fire heated up even more? The COPOM gentlemen invariably opt to kill the dragon by the asphyxiation method. They take away its oxygen by increasing interest rates. The higher the altitude, the more difficult it is for the animal to breathe. The same happens with national development. Thus they strangle credit, penalize small and medium businesses, shrink billions of reais from the market and fatten the primary surplus. Simply because they don’t have the courage to put those who fatten the dragon into a cage. Like Bush with the AIDS epidemic, they prefer to preach chastity ­ the controlling of expenses, excepting the government’s ­ rather than distribute preservatives. Thus the dragon becomes lethargic, but his guardians remain free and unpunished waiting for the first opportunity to increase prices as soon as more cash comes into the market. It hurts to know that every 0.5% increase in the Selic (the tax which regulates interest rates) is equal to draining the equivalent of the Ministry of Health annual budget from the market. Approximately R$30 billion. The population ends up with less buying power, more expensive credit, more difficulty to pay their bills, the struggle against unemployment more burdensome and a better future more distant. And the country exchanges work shops for cassinos. Work shops are places of production, cassinos are for speculation. What do you prefer: to apply your hard earned money in a savings account which will give you 2.5% interest a year, or in another which will assure you 19.25%? Even crazy people do not destroy money so it is obvious that you would invest in Jeca Tatu’s (3) cassino which gives you a better return than Uncle Sam’s roulette. Thus, high interest rates attract dollars to the country in the hope of better returns. Here they are received as manna from heaven. The truth is that the vulture-dollars will perch where carrion is most plentiful, leaving the carcass behind. If investing money in the financial market is more lucrative than investing in production, the country remains at the mercy of the banks which, without flourish, are grateful for the generosity of the COPOM. If interest rates were low, there would be less money yielding money and more money producing wealth, prosperity, jobs and development. Why is it that all those who, during the past 20 years, looked after the country’s finances held or hold executive positions in the banks? Would you dare displease those who salute you with the proposal of a magnificent job? Brazilian interest rates, today the highest in the world, tend to rise above the level left behind by ex-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 2002. In those days the cause was the desired economic stability, today it is the price of petroleum in the world market. Many would commemorate the lethargy of the dragon which is deprived of oxygen. Inflation would be under control. And poverty would be as widespread as the plague. Brazil is a vehicle whose driver accelerates with regards reforms and social policies, while the team who runs the economy keeps the handbrake on. Ah, if the poor could eat statistics instead of bread! How good it would be if the economy team were to work next door to a favela. At least its directors would see the real panorama of the majority of the Brazilian crowds. ------ 1 - The lion is the symbol of the Federal Revenue. 2 - An illegal lottery in Brazil where the numbers are replaced by animals. Bicho=animal. 3 - Jeca Tatu is a country bumpkin in one of Monteiro Lobato’s stories. One of his sayings is that in Brazil there are a lot of ants but very little health. ------- *Frei Betto is the author, together with Maria Stella Libanio Christo, of “Saborosa Viagem pelo Brasil” (Delicious Journey around Brazil) (Mercuryo Jovem). Translation: Helen Hughes Who is Frei Betto He is a Brazilian Dominican with an international reputation as a liberation theologian. Within Brazil he is equally famous as a writer, with 52 books to his name. In 1985 he won Brazil’s most important literary prize, the Jabuti, and was elected Intellectual of the Year by the members of the Brazilian Writers’ Union. Frei Betto has always been active in Brazilian social movements, and has been an adviser to the Church’s ministry to workers in São Paulo’s industrial belt, to the Church base communities, and to the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST). In 2003-2004, he was Special Adviser to President Lula and Coordinator of Social Mobilisation for the Brazilian Government’s Zero Hunger programme.