In this week’s Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures podcast series, BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur interviews Alex Schwartsman is a Brazilian economist and former Director of International Affairs of the Central Bank of Brazil.
The interview examines the genesis of Brazil’s recent economic and political crisis. Schwartsman argues that Brazil is trapped by a large government apparatus where policy making has captured by special interest groups, both in the private and public sector.
While he supports the Bolsa Familia anti-poverty transfer programme, he’s extremely critical of Brazil’s bloated social security system, arguing that the country is a “European social democracy trapped in the body of an emerging economy.”
Catch up on the rest of the series
- Episode 1: Lord Jim O’Neill on the BRICS
- Episode 2: Yukon Huang on China
Next week’s episode will feature former chief economist of the World Bank Kaushik Basu discussing India. The series culminates with a feature length documentary, hosted by Stephen Sackur, examining the global trends, recent research findings and future directions for the rising powers.
Episodes will be available weekly on the Global Development Institute podcast.
You can also find this and other episodes on:
The series was produced by Made In Manchester.
Note: This article gives the views of the author/academic featured and does not represent the views of the Global Development Institute as a whole