IFL SP

home > business > Brainstorming: the great solution!

Brainstorming: the great solution!

Untitled-1 (1)

As the great French poet Victor Hugo would say, one can resist the invasion of armies, but not the invasion of ideas. It is with this purpose and focus that we opened the IFL Blog on the Infomoney portal: to debate ideas and subjects that are on the agenda in Brazil (/subjects/brasil) and in the world.

 

The IFL (Instituto de Formação de Líderes) is a non-profit organization that aims to train young leaders based on the ideals of free market, individual freedom, respect for the Democratic Rule of Law and Private Property. Through our events (/subjects/events) and content production, we seek to foster debate with politicians, businessmen, academics and class entities, regardless of ideological and political views, in order to impact and encourage the discussion of ideas for the improvement of the country's political, economic and social scenario.

In Brazil today, we certainly face enormous challenges, perhaps the biggest in the last 30 years. This is what, when it comes to Brazil, challenge and crisis (/subjects/crisis) seem to be words that do not come out of the Canarinho dictionary. In the economic environment, the years of misguided economic policies led us to the biggest recession in history, with an accumulated drop of 9% in GDP between 2014 and 2016. The so-called "new economic matrix" implemented since 2008, marked by fiscal expansionism, artificially low (/affairs/interests), cheap credit provided by state-owned (/affairs/state-owned) banks (/affairs/interests) and a devalued exchange rate, which once again was only a failed attempt at a successful trajectory, plunged the country into a stagflation and alert scenario. The resulting economic data does not lie with the developmentalism adopted by the previous government (/affairs/government): fiscal crisis, high unemployment (/affairs/unemployment), falling real income and business and consumer confidence at alarmingly low levels.

With the new government, prospects, at least from an economic point of view, seem to be on a recovery path, but still far from ideal. The growing focus on the approval of the Spending Ceiling PEC and the vote in Congress (/subjects/congress) on the Social Security reform demonstrate a fiscal effort capable of softening, at least for now, the galloping trajectory of increase in state debt. Controlled inflation, which is expected to remain below the center of the target in 2017, also contributes to lower uncertainty in the scenario for the coming months. Finally, structural reforms, such as labor and tax, essential to bring productivity gains to the economy (/issues /economy) are on the agenda of congressional discussions and can be voted on until the end of the year.

In the political scenario, the moment seems to be even more challenging. The distrust of the population with the political class, the directions of Lava Jato and the approach of the 2018 elections bring an environment of uncertainty and turmoil in Brasilia. Speculation about the so-called “Janot list”, which promises to cite a multitude of top-level politicians in the government, dominate discussions in the Casas galleries at a time when Brazil needs a Congress focused on debating and voting on structural reforms. .

On the other hand, the vast majority of the population, still tainted by the dichotomy experienced in the 2014 presidential elections, contributes little to the debate on the country's direction. The discussions, marked by simplistic and outdated labels, such as the concepts of right and left, only increase the voltage of tension in the country. An example that reinforces this moment is the issue of pension reform itself. There does not seem to be a public debate on the reform, with concrete arguments worthy of those who have looked into the subject and are able to assess the benefits of the proposal prepared by the government. What there are are exchanges of accusations from both sides (for or against) without any precedent.

In view of these facts, we reinforce what was mentioned at the beginning of this brief article: we need to encourage the debate of ideas and the country project that we would like to have. For this, we will use this page so that IFL members and guests can discuss and give their opinion on the topics that are on the agenda in the country. Our objective will always be the same: to build a freer, more prosperous and unprejudiced Brazil.

Miguel Furian Campos – President of the Leaders Training Institute of São Paulo