Virada Cultural Paulista | The Second Life Effect

Why we avoided the Sambodian Virada Cultural Paulista | 2012, or, traduttores traditores. Neuza and I have not been consuming our fair share of Sambodian culture lately, owing both to ennui and to the odd work schedule of a traduttore traditore. We are also somewhat puzzled over the latest pet project supported by federal and state [...]

The Fearless Independence of the Editora Abril and Other Tall Tales of Its Kind

Blog da Cidadania‘s Edu Guimarães is a leading figure in the self-styled «progessive blogsphere» here in Brazil.  He writes, Some days ago, a friend of mine employed by the Editora Abril phoned me to describe his worries over the scandal involving the newsweekly Veja — that is to say, involving the possibility that group publisher Roberto [...]

Green Machines | Braskem’s Sugar Cane Gains

The Estadão reports: Tigre will introduce a new line of drainage grills using polyethylene produced by Braskem from sugarcane. Known as the Tigre Eco-Grill, the product line marks the entry of «green» plastic into the construction market, the company says, without revealing further details of the deal. “Our investment in this new line shows that we are [...]

Currency Wars | Welcome to the Desert of the Real

O Brasil acorda para a guerra cambial | Brasilianas.Org. The daily column of Luis Nassif, the notable Brazilian business and economics «spreadsheet head». Last Friday, March 9, 2012, will be regarded by posterity as the day Brazil officially awakened to the currency wars, which for so long have eaten away at the fabric of Brazilian [...]

Todd-Frank and The Risco Brazil

Source: Folha de S. Paulo | 19/02/2012 In an item on financial market regulation in today’s Folha, the São Paulo daily appears to be mistaken or confused about the Dodd-Frank Act of 2011  when it summarizes legal provisions that actually belong to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Dodd-Frank deals extensively with oversight of trading, banking and [...]

Rio-Sampa: Trading Places?

The Rio de Janeiro based tip sheet Relatório Reservado passes along a rumor about the future of Brazil’s CME-afiliated commodities exchange, to wit: that Rio governor Sérgio Cabral is engaged in lobbying for a change of venue for commodities and derivatives trading, or possibly the creation of a third venue, in his home state.. The move is [...]

Riding Palocci: Ratfinking the Minister of Money

Many have commented that the first 100 days of the current government here have been relatively free of scandal, but in fact one has been building for quite some time now. It is less noticeable because it deals with macroeconomic stability rather than children born out of wedlock. It would take some time to prepare, [...]

«Networks, Markets and Bureaucracies» | Boi Zebu Learning Annex

Valor Econômico, the business daily, is a JV between Globo and the Folha group. Globo also licenses its TV retransmissions to the Câmara and RBS groups. New and noted by the annotator who annotated it: The Networked Organization, Markets and Bureaucracies | Boi Zebu Learning Annex. I managed to wreck a Drupal installation I had [...]

ECAD | Razing The Royalties Machine

Above: Scandal at ECAD — the Brazilian ASCAP! Cruelty to the beloved Creative Commons! A reform of authorial rights legislation that would prevent the labels from keeping everything! Falling out with prominent leftist intellectual Emir Sader, who is disinvited from heading the Rui Barbosa Institute!  Since the media blitz began here — Bring Me the [...]

Novos Mercados-Máquinas: IBM e Febraban?

Aí, o jeito que o tempo têm de complicar as coiss. No meio da década dos 2000, eu editava um jornalzinho sobre a indústria financeira. Tinha meu gabinete quase na esquina da Rua Wall com Water. Na época, a NYSE — a Bolsa de Nova York — era a NYSE que sempre tinha sido, ou [...]