The emerging view of the modern corporation is that business need to do more than just make as much money as possible for their owners and shareholders. Jeffrey Sachs, founder and chairman of the Jeffrey Group and associate professor at the New York University, talked about the triple bottom line, looking at the financial, environmental and social results of a company's operation, along with the discussant Marcos Kisil, president of IDIS.
Brazil's former minister of agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, talked about the 1st. sector in the Brazil and in the world along with the prof. Jean-Yves Carfantan, author of a book abou the role of Brazil in the food market.
The Prof. Dr. José Eustáquio Diniz Alves talked about the demographic transition of the Brazilian population and the prospects of a demographic surplus which can benefit the country, opening an opportunity window in which the proportion of people in productive ages will be bigger in relation to children and elders.
Nilson Vieira Oliveira and Patricia Mota Guedes, both from the Instituto Fernand Braudel, presented the results of a field research with 840 parents of public school students from the city of São Paulo about their concerns, critics and suggestions.
In this seminar, we made a profound analysis of two contradictory news: The gas rationing and the discovery of the Tupi petroleum reserves.
Marta Lagos, founder and executive director of Corporación Latinobarómetro, presented on the Instituto Fernand Braudel some facts about the state of democracy in Latin America, based on the results of the 2007 edition of the yearly latinobarómetro research.
Conference and party for the release of the book "Qualidade na educação: a luta por melhores escolas em São Paulo e Nova York" (Education Quality: the fight for better schools in São Paulo and New York) at the FAAP conference center.
A leading analyst, historian of the world financial system and member of the Instituto Fernand Braudel, Professor Barry Eichengreen, explained the dynamics of volatility and credit collapse bred by the wave of real estate and financial speculation in the United States and other countries.
How to create a supervision system to make new methods and ambitious objectives get to the daily practice on the school classes? This seminar was about this question, one of the main challenges of school reforms around the world.
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Coming from decades of civil conflicts and anarchic violence aggravated by the growth of drug traffic, Bogota and Medellin have seen a significant improvement on life quality thanks to the reduction of the crime rates, brought by a set of actions on public security and urbanization policies. This seminar presented the measures adopted to reduce the crime rates.
How to change public schools suffering with disorder and academic failure? Nathan Dudley explained how principals and teachers of New York are fighting and slowly winning against the challenge of improving the standards of learning and behavior on schools.
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On June 11, 2007, Worldfund honored Roger Agnelli, President and CEO of CVRD, and Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, at its third Education Leadership Award dinner. The event took place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City, and was attended by over 450 guests.
The event featured two students from Worldfund's partner program Reading Circles, from the Fernand Braudel Institute. Read the moving testimonies Aline Verneck da Silva and Fernanda de Carvalho Cirilo presented about how education transformed their lives.
The executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute, Norman Gall, talked about the education reform in New York and solutions which could be used on Brazil in an public audience to the Education and Culture Commission of the Chamber at Brasília
Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute, and Patricia Mota Guedes, education program coordinator of the Institute, stayed five weeks in New York earlier this year studying the audacious school reform lead by the Mayor Michael Bloomberg. On this trip, they acquired ideas to improve our project on public school reform in São Paulo and in Brazil, which will be the main focus of our researches, talks and publications until 2008. At April 9 and 17, Norman and Patricia presented this project to the Institute members, talking about the trip results, objectives, actions and activities of this project.
Will the increasing lack of natural resources affect China's growth rate? Arthur Kroeber, China Economic Quarterly's editor, resident of Beijing and well-known analyst on China's development, talked about the mid-term future of China. He focused in the lack of resources - water, farmland and power sources alternative to coal. Brazil has water, farmland and power, but the development is slow because of institutional weakness. Will China win against such problems with its millenium-old culture and its capacity to social organization and large-scale workforce mobilization? This seminar was held in English.
With the record amount of US$ 100 bi in the exchange reserves accumulated by Brazil, which makes it easier to manage the risks of decreasing global market liquidity, this seminar asked "What to do?" to Alfonso José Pastore and Ilan Goldfarn, who talked about the current global economy situation and the new doubts it brings to the finance authorities and organizations. Worrisome events and alert signals mix themselves: The recent instability on the Asian stock exchanges, the risks of USA deceleration, the biggest consumer market; the fall of dollar, the global reserve currency; the record commercial profits of the big oil and agriculture commodities producers, with low internal consumption potential.
The Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, the Cultura bookstore and Toopbooks invite for the release of the book "Gasto Público Eficiente - 91 propostas para o desenvolvimento do Brasil", composed by talks and a session of autographs with Rubens Ricupero, Marcos Mendes, Alexandre Rocha, Amir Khair and Raul Veloso.
The Braudel Papers "Democratization of Consumption", about the evolving life standards in the Greater Sao Paulo suburbs, reveals the increasing number of businessmen which live and develop themselves in these regions. They have been occupying an growing importance, not only on the local economy, but also in the distribution strategies and in the ways of doing business of the industries interested in increasing their sales. This seminar will present businessmen that represents this process, identified during our research which interviewed 1092 families in four neighbourhoods from the Greater Sao Paulo suburbs.
The huge increase of the public spendings, especially with expenses which will extend over many years, threaten to bring Brazil to a new frame of stalled economy and chronic inflation. In this seminar, was discussed how to bypass the uncertainties of the economy stability, that can compromise everything already done to reduce the interest rates and increase the development. The efforts to generate primary fiscal profits of more than 4% of the GNP won't bring any benefit if those dangers aren't fought with decisions taken based in a solid political consensus. For this debate, the Fernand Braudel Institute invited the following members: Senator Eduardo Suplicy (PT/SP), Raul Veloso, pubic finances' specialist, and Marcos Mendes, Senate's economist, public finances' academic and organizer of the book Gasto Público Eficiente.
After the fall of URSS, which it maintained strong economic relationships, Finland entered into a grave macroeconomic crisis. A institute, the SITRA, was formed to formulate a national strategic consensus, whose success brought the country from a natural-resources based economy to one of the most competitive knowledge-based economies of the world. In this seminar, given by the Professor Jorma Roiutti, from the Helsink Technology University, director of the Creative Industries Management (CIM) and former president of SITRA, with Peter Knight and Jan Jarne as debaters, the Institute sought to extract measures which could be adopted by the Brazil from the Finland experiences.
After returning from a three month mission in Iraq, stationed in the region of Tikrit, where Saddam Hussein was born and captured, Rick Waddell, Reserve Colonel of the US Army and Vice-President of British Gas for Latin America, explained the political and military situation in the Sunni rebel zone. A doctor in international relations (Columbia University), Waddel is member of the Braudel Institute's Board of Directors. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University with studies in the history of diplomacy and is a professor at the Military Academy at West Point. To offer debate, Antônio Carlos Pereira, editorialist from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, writer, and speaker on the issues of strategy and defense was present.
In this seminar we discussed whether Hugo Chávez is the new face of the old Latin American populism. We also analyzed topics such as: the consistency and direct consequences of Chávez's initiatives; how the political polarization has affected the structure of the country; what are the perspectives of the permanence of power; what are the effects on Venezuela of the decrease in national oil revenues. We also touched on the international repercussions of the Chávez government. To discuss these issues a panel was composed by Norman Gall, the executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute and veteran economic and political researcher in Latin America and Marcel Grainer, President of RCTV (Venezuela) and president of the Venezuelan chapter of the Council of Latin American Businessmen (CEAL).
Despite the growing role of the Sciences in modern life, national and international evaluations demonstrate that the Brazilian schools are not producing students with basic scientific competence. Brazilian 15 year old students were next-to-last place, out of 35 countries tested, in mathematics and science according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developemnt (OECD). The Fernand Braudel Institute has promoted the idea of a strategi consensus in Brazil to develop basic education and infra-structure as long-term public priorities. As part of this effort, the seminar debated proposals and considered successfull experiences to improve science education, together witth net public education, that can help to further a new political strategy and investments in education in Brazil. The debaters in this event were: Prof. Leopoldo DeMeis, of the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at UFRJ; Prof. Shigueo Watanabe of the Physics Institute at USP and the Academy of Sciences; and Prof. Laerte Sodre Jr. of the Institute of Astronomy, Geophyisics and Atmospheric Sciences at USP.
Faced with a world shaken by the dramatic increases in the price of petroleum, fed by the growth in consumption by China, India, and the United States, and, at this moment, aggravated by the serious effects of Hurricane Katrina on the refineries in the United States and the Gulf of Mexico, the Institute invited the Executive Vice-President of British Gas and a reserve colonel in the US Army, who recently served in Iraq, Rick Waddel, and specialist in petroleum and Gas, Professor Edmilson Moutinho dos Santos, from the Institute of Electrotechnology and Energy at the University of São Paulo, to discuss the impacts of petroleum on Brazil and to evaluate the perspectives for the country given the recent discoveries of enormous reserves of petroleum and gas in Brazilian waters.
Amid the crises of traditional companies with huge debts and costly operations, low-price companies have arisen as the stars of the transportation sector. The success of the Brazilian Gol in the capital market together with other performance indicators demonstrate that worldwide commercial aviation will have another option. The growth of charter flights and of bold companies, such as Ocean Air, reduce the ticket prices and popularizes the use of aviation as a means of transport. To debate these issues, the Braudel Institute invited Constantino de Oliveira Jr., president of Gol Airlines, German Efromovich, president of Synergy Group (Ocean Aid, Avianca, Wayra Air), and Arnim Lore, former president of Varig and member of the Board if Directors of the Fernand Braudel Institute.
Even amid the worse political crisis since the collapse of the democratic system in the beginning of the 1960´s, the democratic institutions of Brazil are much stronger today than in the past. The perspectives of returning to military dictatorship are remote. Every Brazilian knows of the system of bribes and the liquidation of money from public funds through loans and fraudulent contracts between publicity agencies, government bodies, and pension funds. To debate this moment in political history, we invited Senator Jefferson Peres (PDT/AM), a titular member of the Commission for the Constitution and Justice and of the CPI dos Correios. The debaters were: Deputy Carlos Sampaio (PSDB/SP), sub-spokesman for systematization of the CPI dos Correios and promoter of Justice, Leôncio Martins Rodrigues, political scientist and emeritus professor at USP and Campinas University and author of Partidos, ideologia e composição social - Um estudo das bancadas partidárias na Câmara (Edusp, 2002).
With Arthur Kroeber, editor of The China Economic Quarterly, in Shanghai. The debaters were the following members of the Fernand Braudel Institute: Eliana Cardoso, former chief economist for the World Bank in China and columnist for O Estado de S. Paulo and for Valor Econômico; Charles Andrew T´Ang, president of the Sino-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Renato Amorim, of the Council on Sino-Brazilian Industry and former secretary of the Brazilian Embassy in China; and Daniel Ross, who has lead Embraco, the Brazilian industry and world leader in the area of compressors for five years, during which the company initiated production in China in 1994.
The seminar considered the opportunities and difficulties in negotiating with China the impacts of the enormous and continued rates of growth of the Chinese in the Brazilian economy, and considered the strong external political pressure for the valorization of the Chinese currency.
The predicament of the Social Security problem, arising from the 1988 Constitutionm is harming public finances in Brazil and impending more productive social investments. Senator Amir Lando left the Ministry of Social Security indignated with the lack of sensibility that the politicians have when confronting the enlargement of this fiscal hole. The event had two specialists in social security to debate this topic. José Cecchin, former executive secretary and also ex-minister of Social Security, and journalist Suely Caldas, a columnist for O Estado de S. Paulo.
The Fernand Braudel Institute has started a series of meetings with one of the Brazilians most experienced in international relations, the Ambassador Rubens Ricupero. Elected president of the Board of Directors of the Institute, Ambassador Ricupero will present this series of talks that will permit the participants to become more familiar with the changes and emerging structures in commerce and in international politics.
The important consensus, that is necessary to improve the quality of the public schools in Brazil and in the rest of the world has not led to productive debate resulting in necessary improvements. The problems of disorganization, lack of professors and directors, drug and arms trafficking, threats to professors and students, vandalism, and robbery deserve a straight and adequate approach. The Fernand Braudel Institute and the Consulate of the United States in São Paulo have brought two distinguished and experienced managers in the school system of New York for a series of meetings in the greater São Paulo area with professors, students and parents of the public school system, to echange experiences of the security and management of schools in the two metropolises. From New York was Samuel Bethea, Regional Manager for School Security in the Bronx and Andave de La Cruz, director of the Academic Orientation and Adolescent and Family Support of the Municipal Secretary of Education of the city. Debaters were Iara Prado, Assistant Municipal Secretary of Education in São Paulo, and Rildo Guilherme de Oliveira, director of the state school network in São Bernardo.
The recent events in Bolivia emphasize the changes that have arisen in the evolution of democracy in Latin America. Similar to what occurred in Venezuela and in Argentina, Bolivia is experiencing a strengthening of populism stemming from the heated disputes over natural resources and the conflicts with foreign investor over exploration concessions. These tensions have threatened the supply of Bolivian gas to Brazil. The threat of the renunciation of President Carlos Mesa was another episode of the grave crisis institutional that also caused the renunciation of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in 2003.
The speakers at the seminar were Roberto Laserna, political scientist and sociologist from Cochabamba and visiting professor from the University of Princeton and Susan Donoso, sociologist specializing in field research of social movements in the interior of Bolivia, the former advisor for social projects for the vice-president of Bolivia and consultant for UNICEF, PNUD, and the Fernand Braudel Institute.
With Aloysio Nunes Ferreira, federal deputy (PSDB), former minister of Justice, and secretary of Municipal Government of São Paulo and Luiza Erundina de Sousa, federal deputy (PSB), former mayor of São Paulo and member of the Special Commission of Political Reform of the Chamber, who are both members of the Fernand Braudel Institute. The election this month of the Federal Chambers provoked a chorus of demands for political reform. The new president of the Chamber, Severino Cavalcanti, is in favor of change. Partisan and electoral rules tend to disqualify the participation of political institutions of citizens. What are the chances of effective change to strengthen the parties and the Congress? What are the proposals of the project that is being developed by the Special Commission for Political Reform of the Chamber? With the intention to respond to these questions, the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics held this seminar that intended to not merely diagnose the problems, but aimed to find politically viable solutions.
With Professor Robert H. Williams (Princeton University), a physicist, is a leading policy scientist specializing in problems of energy and the environment. This seminar on the prospects for alternative energy supplies after the peaking of world oil production in the first quarter of the 21st Century. A brilliant innovator in seeking ways to create new technologies to overcome the challenges of supply shortages, environmental constraints and climate change. Professor Williams explained his ideas about combining the agricultural potential of Brazil´s cerrados and the enormous coal resources of Australia to produce liquid natural gas (LNG) for export from Brazil.
Ambassador Rubens Ricupero, honorary president of the Braudel Institute and General Secretary of UNCTAD, discussed the practical effects in Brazil's two consecutive victories at the WTO over subsidies of developed nations to export cotton and sugar. One of the most experienced analysts of international trade negotiations, Ricupero also spoke of the perspectives for resuming multilateral negotiations at the Doha rounds in Geneva.
With Luiz Mauer, senior specialist in regulatory problems for the energy sector at the World Bank, and Eduardo José Bernini, president of AES Brazil and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute. This seminar addressed the project of private-public co-ownership (PPP) and the regulatory sector framework approved by the federal government. The event analyzed the inconsistencies of the projects and discussed the need for new investments in energy infra-structure in Brazil. Experiences of regulatory success and failure in other countries were also discussed for comparison with the model presented by Lula´s government.
While keeping in mind the gap between the tax reforms that Brazil needs and its political reality, this seminar discussed the tax reform that the country will have to grow and to bear the cost of he governmental machine and public institutions. The seminar also analyzed who will be the losers and winners of federal fiscal reform between different groups and sector within the economy. The lecturers were Everardo Macial, former Secretary of Federal Economics; Eduardo Guardia, Secretary of the Treasury for the State of São Paulo; José Roberto Afonso, economist of BNDES, economic advisor to the PSDB (Teotônio Vilela Institute), and the architect of senator Tasso Jereissati´s reform proposal; and André Paiva Filho, main technician for the Treasury Department in the formulation of proposals for tax reform.
With Marcos Sawaya Jank, president of Ícone; Pedro de Camargo Neto, former Secretary of Production and Commercialization for the Ministry of Agriculture; and Jean-Yves Carfantan, economics professor from the Higher Agriculture Institute of Angers (ESA Group, France). The seminar analyzed the most relevant aspects of international commercial negotiations and considered the rounds of negotiations between Mercosul and the European Union. The seminar also looked the impacts of Brazil´s victory at the WTO over US cotton subsides and at the perspectives of FTAA consolidation. There was also discussion of the risks facing the continued success of Brazilian agro-business in the reduction of investments in infra-structure and in the technical capacities within governmental agencies.
Bringing together specialists and scholars in education and in the evaluation of public sector performance, this seminar examined the incongruent points of the new National System of Evaluation of Higer Education (SINAES), which was presented by Anísio Teixeira National Institute of Educational Studies and Research, of the Ministry of Education, to replace the Provão (National Course Exam). The speakers were Luiz Silva Araújo, president of INEP, representative Rachel Figueiredo Teixeira, vice-president of the Education Commission of the Chamber of Representatives and former Secretary of Education in Goiás and Maria Helena Guimarães de Castro, member of the Fernand Braudel Institute, former executive secretary of MEC and former president of INEP. They discussed the risks of putting a end to a clear instrument for qualitative comparison of facilities but also considered the deficiencies and the needs to improve the Provão.
Andrew Foster, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute and worldwide authority on the monitoring of public services, reported the pioneering innovations in the evaluation of public sector quality control, the improvements in national and regional governmental actions, and the need to reproduce successful practices. There was debate with Andrea Sandro Calabi, the Secretary of Economy and State Planning of São Paulo and who also holds a doctorate in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
With minister Sidney Sanches (Federal Supreme Tribunal), Professor Joaquim Falcão (masters in Law from Harvard University and Director of the Law School at FGV/RJ), and Beno Suchodolski (Suchodolski Lawyers, Councilor Director of the Fernand Braudel Institute). To promote and care for justice should be one of the main duties of the State. However, in Brazil there are many problems that narrow the beneficiaries of Justice. The causes of this problem are known: the slowness of trials, the concentration of judicial power, the creativity of the lawyers, the inflexibility of the Public Ministry, the excessiveness of appeals, the insufficiency of disciplinary instruments, the multiplication of repeat trials and the existence of an executive power that is poorly paid. Experience shows that less formalisms and greater computarization hugly increases the efficiency of the dispute settlement process.
With Dorel Soares Ramos (POLI/USP and Bandeirante Energy), Demóstenes Barbosa da Silva (AES Tietê), Guilherme Velho (APINE and Promon), Idel Metzger (Fernand Braudel Institute and Brascan Energy) and Virgínia Parente (Fernand Braudel Institute and Business School of São Paulo).
The new model, recently introduced by the energy sector of the Department of Mines and Energy, intends to equate the intersection of the complex variables of the sector. The objective of the model is to stimulate private investment, permit a price that is acceptable for consumers and suppliers, and guarantee that energy is offered to avoid future blackouts facing the (expected) increase of the GNP. New developments, such as the discovery of national gas reserves and the still discordant relations between the Federal Government and the regulating agencies, have made energy planning between business and government more complicated.
An International Seminar with John Williamson, Institute for International Economics, former Chief Economist of the World Bank for Southern Asia and former professor at Princenton University, MIT and PUC/RJ. The debaters were: Javier Gonzáles Fraga, former president of the Central Bank of Argentina (1989-91) and Marcelo Allain, Executive Economist of Strategic Planning for Nestlé Brazil.
What is the price of stability? Does stability inhibit growth? How do monetary variables influence growth and stability? Why is the fiscal surplus larger today than it was under the Cardoso government? For how long will the fear of inflation support restrictive monetary policy? The relative social cohesion that was maintained after Lula came into power, the increase in trade surplus, excellent tax collecion, social security reform, and the fall of inflation do not seem to have been sufficient to diminish the external vulnerability caused by enormous debt. What are Brazil´s options? The speaker, the debaters and all the members of the Fernand Braudel Instititute also analyzed the present situation in Argentina and its economic and institutional stability program.
With George Kelling and Catherine Coles from John Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Debaters: José Vicente da Silva Filho and Emerson Kapaz.
Promoted together with the Consulate General of the United States, this seminar discussed the importance of reforming antiquated police structures and corrupt police units and discussed the role of the Public Ministry in this process.
With the presence of Luiz Eduardo Soares, Secretary of National Public Security, and Rodney Miranda, Secretary of Public Security in Espírito Santo, this seminar analyzed the current state of the fight against organized crime in the country, driven by the mandates passed by federal and state authorities and the task-forces implemented in Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo. The frightening headlines enumerating the terrorist actions of daring drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the close relationship between politicians and criminal associations in Espírito Santo - aggravated by the assassination of magistrates - leave the Brazilian population at a loss. The efforts against organized crime, driven by federal and state policies and by the Federal Public Ministry, should be made public. Reserve Colonel José Vicente da Silva Filho, former National Secretary of Public Security and researcher at the Fernand Braudel Institute, was present at this seminar, that also analyzed what needs to be done now to seriously confront organized crime.
The uncertainty concerning the federal jails, rebellions, large-scale escapes and the large jail deficit in Brazil worsen the restlessness of the population because of the lack of safety. Legal ambiguity, the corporatism of lawyers and the hasty accusations of breaches of Human Rights are barriers for the political attempts to improve the Brazilian jail system. This seminar was an opportunity to learn about the administration of jails in São Paulo in detail, including the different treatment given to the convicts who lead criminal groups. The speakers for this event were judge Nagashi Furukawa, Secretary for Prison Administration of São Paulo, former District Chief of the Police and District Attorney; Colonel José Vicente da Silva Filho (reserve), former Secretary of the Public Safety Department and research coordinator for Public Safety at the Fernand Braudel Institute; Elizabeth Sussekind, former Secretary of National Law and Julita Lemgruber, researcher at the Center for Studies on Safety and Social Awareness (CESeC) and at UCAM.
At this conference, priorities in public safety were stated in an order so as to efficiently address the issue not only within each state, but also throughout the country. To lecture on this topic were the Secretary of Public Safety of the State of São Paulo, Saulo de Castro Abreu, and the judge Walter Maierovich, former National Anti-Drugs Secretary. Colonel José Vicente da Silva Filho (reserve), former Secretary of the Public Safety Department and research coordinator for public safety at the Fernand Braudel Institute, evaluated the strategies and the public safety program made by the government and spoke on the current condition of public safety in the main states.
The stagnation in the Brazilian electrical industry because of the ambiguity of its standards brings up fundamental issues. What are the "single buyer" and the "energy pool" alternatives and what effects would thy have on the Brazilian taxation problem? Is the return of electrical industry to state a possibility or a danger? What are the impacts brought by the close of the Wholesale Energy Market (MAE)? These and other pressing issues were discussed in this conference, which was presented by Virgínia Parente, Chairperson for the Roberto Campos research chair on Energy Policy at the Fernand Braudel Institute; Afonso Henriques Moreira Santos, Professor at the Federal University of Itajubá and former Secretary of the Energy Department of MME; and Paulo Ludmer, Executive Director of ABRACE and Professor at FAAP.
This conference was an opportunity to analyze the strategic implications and the possible outcomes that an American attack on Iraq would bring, with or without an approval by the United Nations. The main speaker on this topic was Colonel Rick Waddell, reserve of the United States Army, Vice-Executive President of the British Gas for Latin Amereica and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute Board of Directors and Antonio Carlos Pereira, writer for the O Estado de S. Paulo and speaker on strategic issues.
The blackout in the policy-making of the electrical sector - the difficulties in making decisions, title of the last Braudel Papers in 2002, focuses n the role that the lack of regulation of the electrical sector played on the energy crisis of 2001. Peter Greiner, former Secretary of the Department of Mines and Energy; Rick Waddel, Vice-President of British Gas in Brazil; and Eduardo José Bernini, President of EDP, defended their ideas for solution of the institutional problems in the Brazilian electrical sector based on national and international experiences.
The Brazilian public debt, regardless of who is the president, is a great concern for both the national finance system and the foreign investors. The options are scarce and the actions to be taken require a lot of care, under the risk of triggering an economic and political regression in the country. This seminar provided an opportunity to discuss the means of economic administration, such as the centralization of currency exchange, the inflation growth, the restructuring of debt, negotiated or not, and an economic adjustment involving the retirement funds. The professors Celso Martone (FEA/USP) and Joaquim Elói Cirne de Toledo (FEA/USP and Nossa Caixa) and the economist Roberto Campos Neto (Bank Santander), all members of the Fernand Braudel Institute, and Alexandre Schwartsman (Bank BBA) debated at this conference.
Among the vast array of themes covered during the ten days of the Sustainable Development Conference was the Rio+10, which brought mixed feelings concerning its success and/or failure because it added social and economic issues to the Environmental theme of the Summit. This discussion analyzed the effects of Rio+10 onto Brazil and, more broadly, onto the world. Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and Honorary President of the Fernand Braudel Institute; Kiyotaka Akasaka, Ambassador for Japan in São Paulo and the Vice-Chairperson of the committee for the Kyoto Protocol; Oswaldo Lucon, Assistant at the Secretariat for the Environment of the State of São Paulo; and Sérgio Garcia Amoroso, president founder and president of the Grupo Orsa, were the speakers of this event.
The accounting frauds of the United States and the power of corporative government on business represent an important factor for the instability of international markets. This lecture examined whether the Brazilian accounting standards are fraud-proof; if the Brazilian businesses, because of the culture or the local tax system, tend to be stricter in their accounting; and the fact that, in the same way that American businesses make an effort to "create" profits, Brazilian businessmen "create" losses. The speakers were Roberto Teixeira da Costa, ex-President and founder of CVM and member of the Board of Directors of the Braudel Institute of World Economics, L. Nelson de Carvalho (FIPECAFI/USP), and Almir da Silva Mota, who works with the investors of Klabin
Able to avoid the Argentinean crisis, in about two months Brazil changed from being only a good place for foreign investment to being the one of the developing countries with the most promising futures. Even though the economic structure was maintained, the dollar exchange rate increased rapidly and the investments were withdrawn at a similar rate. The speakers for this topic were the members of the Fernand Braudel Institute Roberto de Oliveira Campos Neto (Santander), Marcelo Allain (Banco Interamerican Express), Antonio Correa de Lacerda (Siemens and PUC/SP), Celso Martone (USP) and John Henry Schulz [economic historian, author of "A Crise Financeira da Abolição" (Edusp, 1996)]. The economists Danny Rappaport (Tendências Consultoria), Lídia Goldenstein (MB Associados), Francisco Petrus (Nix Asset Management and "Carta Capital") and Mauro Schneidder (ING Bank) also attended the lecture.
The Brazilian public education system took several significant steps forward in the 1990s. Regional differences decreased and the percentage of children between 7 and 14-year-olds enrolled in school increased 79.5% in 1991 to 94.9% in 2000. The rapid growth of the public education system poses a new administrative challenge - how to improve the quality of the elementary and middle school while still providing access to it for all children. How to improve the administration considering the availability and use of resources, information, and people in the Brazilian public schools? What is the role of the federal, state, and local institutions in maintaining or aiding in the progress of public education?
Speakers: Maria Helena Guimarães de Castro, Executive Secretary of the Department of Education; Jane Wreford, director of the British Audit Commission, who, with the Fernand Braudel Institute, researched the coordination and supervision of the Brazilian educational system; Cáudia Tamassia, who works for the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); Marileusa Moreira Fernandes, researcher on Educational Administration at the Fernand Braudel Institute, member of the State of São Paulo Board of Education, and ex-coordinator of State Department in Education for the Greater São Paulo, and Maria Luiza Marcílio, researcher on the History of Education at the Fernand Braudel Institute.
The international public institutions are losing their strength in an increasingly complex world. Indications of such trend can be seen through the controversies concerning the IMF's policy on providing financial aid and through the weakening of the World Bank and of the institutions connected to the United Nations. Clive Cook, editor of The Economist and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute, and Mailson da Nóbrega and Roberto Teixeira da Costa, members of the Board of Directors of the Fernand Braudel Institute, lectured on the topic.
What is Petrobrás' part in the fiscal cleansing of Brasil? How to cleanse Petros - their employees' retirement fund - while still avoiding new transfers that may harm the State and the Brazilian citizens? How should Petrobrás' de facto monopoly on the extraction and transportation of natural gas in the Brazilian market unfold? What are the effects suffered by the Brazilian economy caused by Petrobrás' neglicence in its program to modernize its refineries? What are the prospects for the free competition in the natural gas trade? Francisco Gros, President and CEO of Petrobrás and member of the Board of Directors of the Fernand Braudel Institute led the seminar that analyzed these and other questions. The debaters were Roberto Hukai, founding member of the Institute and analyst of energy infrastructure, and Peter Greiner, Chairman for the Roberto Campos Research on Energy.
The energy crisis in Brazil in 2001-2002 provided important lessons and highlighted problems that still have not been overcome. This event provided the opportunity to analyze the stagnation of the proposed reforms and privatization of energy production, the political uncertainty, and the cost administration. All of this, aggravated by the excessive energy demand in the short-run, increases the risk of even more energy crises in the future. Participants: Peter Greiner (Chair for the Roberto Campos Research on Energy), Octávio Lopes Castello Branco Neto (BNDES), Eduardo Bernini (Electricity Group of Portugal), Luis David Travesso (AES/Eletropaulo), and Marcelo Marinho (Brascan Brasil/Branscan Energética).
Event with the presence of specialized policemen of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, coordinated by reserve colonel José Vicente da Silva Filho, researcher of public security of the Fernand Braudel Institute, where were examined the determinant factors on the growth of the abductions on the São Paulo state, analyzing them as a criminal business in its different means of organization and the best strategies to fight this kind of crime. With Godofredo Bittencourt, director of the State Department of Criminal Investigation of São Paulo (DEIC), Álvaro Lins, delegate-chief of the Civil Police of the Rio de Janeiro State and former member of the Anti-Abduction Police Station (DAS). Zeca Borges, manager of the disque-denúncia (accusation-call system) of Rio de Janeiro, Pernanbuco and Espírito Santo, used to intermediate the participation of the civil society in the anti-abduction actions, Wagner Giudice, chief attorney of the anti-abduction specialist division (DAES) of São Paulo and Reinaldo Correa, attorney of the Diadema Police.
The reoccurring financial crises in developing countries in the 1990s, the recent recession and the increasing protectionism in the United States, the stagnation of Japan, the instability of foreign trade, and the intensification of ethnic and religious conflicts seem to threaten the expectations and the need for expansion of the world economy. To discuss this topic, we invited the experts Guy Pfefferman, Chief Economist of the International Finance Corporation (IFC- World Bank), Roberto Macedo, former Secretary of Political Economy of the Treasury Department, Roberto Campos Neto, Vice-President of the Treasury Department at Bank Santander, and Armando Castelar Pinheiro, Head of the Economics Department of the BNDES.
With Edward Luttwak
The author of the well-know Coup d'Etat (1968) and other books targeted the problem of the terrorism after the attacks of September 11 against the USA in this seminar. The speaker Luttwak is a senior member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Washington.
With Peter Greiner, Gilberto Paim (Instituto Atlântica) and Roberto Campos Neto (Banco Santander).
Releasing of the Research Chair sponsored by AES, EDP, Klabin and Votorantim, whose name is a homage to the skilled crisis-solver and development scholar Roberto Campos. Greiner, the chair holder, presented his plan of work to the next three years together with family members, friends and readers of the former Planning Secretary works.
Facing a threat of electricity blackouts, Brazil confronts a dilemma that goes to the heart of its struggle against chronic inflation over the past decade. Must Brazil choose between inefficient and politicized state power monopolies and the whims of Wall Street, focused on short-term fluctuations in exchange and interest rates and the changing fashions among analysts of investment banks? How can the political model achieve stability in electricity supplies at prices that reflect long-term market realities? Speakers: Roberto Hukai of the University of São Paulo, co-author od our 1990 study of Electricity and Chronic Inflation in Brazil; Hermann Wever, president of Siemens; Peter Greiner, former National Energy Secretary; José Luiz Alquéres, president of Alstom Energia and former president of Eletrobrás, and Mauro Thibau, former Energy Minister (1964-67).
Presentation of the research monograph, Governabilidade no Município de São Paulo, by Marco Mendes, Octávio Bulhões Research Fellow in Political Economy at the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Ecnomics. Discussion by Mailson da Nóbrega, Finance Minister of Brazil (1987-90); Gilberto Natalini, City Councilman, and Jorge Whielm, Municipal Planning Commissioner.
Presentatinon by Ambassador Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD and Honorary President of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics.
Discussion with Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics; Rick Waddell, former staff member of the National Security Council, and Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, columnist of Veja magazine.
Public lecture by Francisco Gros, President of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, on future privatization policies and regulatory problems. Jointly sponsored by the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP).
Greater São Paulo registered 11,460 homicides in 1999, a rete of 66 per 100,000 population, not very different from other violent cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Vitória and Recife and some suburbs of Brasília. This seminar discussed how to curb ths epidemic and the National Plan for Public Security announced by the federal government. Speakers: André Dahmer of the São Paulo Department of Public Security; Professor Ignácio Cano of Rio de Janeiro; Bruno Paes Manso, author of the recent special issue on "Homicides" in Braudel Papers, and José Vicente da Silva, Pão de Açucar Research Fellow in Public Security at the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics.
Analysis of claims of fraud in the reelection of President Alberto Fujimori as signs of possible discontinuity in Latin America's development. Sponsored by the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) and the Conselho de Empresários da América Latina (CEAL). Speakers: Richard Webb, former President of Peru's Central Bank and Member of the Institute; Albino Ruiz, researcher for the Institute in Lima, and Ambassador Antonino Mena Gonçalves, director of the Americas Department of Brazil's Foreign Ministry.
How much will Brazil's new fiscal reform legislation contribute to political and economic stability? Lecture by former Finance Minister Mailson da Nóbrega, member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, and comments by Marcos Mendes, Octávio Bulhões Research Fellow in Political Economy at the Braudel Institute.
Suffering financial difficulties in the 1990s, plagued by low musicians' salaries and lack of rehearsal space, the Symphony Orchestra of São Paulo State has become a symbol of institutional revival in its new concert hall, a remodeled railroad station in the old city center achieving excellence rewarded by a Sony recording contract and scheduled tours of the United States, Europe and Japan with Columbia Artist Management. Discussion with Roberto Minczuk, conductor, of how the orchestra recreated itself and of its future under public sponsorship in an uncertain political climate.
Growing uncertainty in the world economy has fed a debate over whether the Central Bank can afford to lower real interest rates from their current highs to stimulate economic growth. Discussion with Luiz Fernando Figueiredo, the Central Bank's director of monetary policy; Professor Celso Martone of the University of São Paulo, and Marcelo Allain of Banco Inter-American Express.
Seminars and lectures by professor David Landes of Harvard University, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, on economic and institutional development. Comments by professor Eduardo Giannetti, University of São Paulo. São Paulo and Recife.
Round of seminars which examined the development of the modern world economy in the light of the famous trilogy Material Civilization, Economy and Capitalism by Fernand Braudel. The first of the three phases of this round of seminars happened in 1998, always led by the Professors Fernando Haddad and Maria Luíza Marcílio, both from the University of São Paulo. Important personalities, like the historian Peter Burke, Cambridge University and the Ambassador Rubens Ricupero Secretary-General of UNCTAD and Honorary President of the Institute, have given the first lectures. At March 22, 1999 the emeritus professor William McNeill, Chicago University, one of the most important alive historians and member of the Institute gave a teleconference at the USAID headquarters (São Paulo) about the Fernand Braudel work, as the mark of the beginng of the second phase, during 1999. The meetings are targeted at academics, businessmen, publicists and autonomous professionals.
With Central Bank President Armínio Fraga and Francisco Gros, former President of the Central Bank, and Professor Celso Martone of the University of São Paulo, both members of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics. The seminar analyzed institutional problems faces by the bank in formulating a monetary policy in an increasingly open economy subject to shocks generated both by domestic politics and international turbulence.
Brazil's government spends enormous sums on a corrupt and wasteful judicial bureaucracy, costing roughly $500,000 yearly for each judge, to decide some 2.5 million petty labor disputes each year that generate employment for tens of thousands of officials and lawyers. These courts enforce elaborate labor laws that encourage fraud, discourage hiring and drive millions of people into informal work. However, in a nation of weak institutions labor courts are the only recourse available to employers and workers with grievances in unequal negotiations. Explaining this dilemma were the sociologist José Pastore, member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, and Judge Antônio Álvares da Silva of the Regional Labor Tribunal of Minas Gerais.
As big countries with weak institutions spread over vast and sparsely-settled territories, both Colombia and Brazil are impacted by problems of scale. Both countries suffer from edemic violence that has escalated recently. Fernando Cepeda Ulloa, former Interior Minister and Ambassador to the United Nations, discussed recent efforts at pacification in the face of spreading activity of guerrillas, drug traffickers and paramilitary groups. Valmore Acevedo, former governor of ther border state of Táchira in the Venezuelan Andes and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, explained the impact of Colombian violence on Venezuelan politics and society. Luiz Felipe Seixas Correia, Brasil's Vice Minister of Foreign Relations, outlined Brazil's diplomatic response to the overflow of Colombia's crisis across its borders. From his reporting in rebel-controlled areas in Colombia, Lorival Sant'Anna, international editor of O Estado de S. Paulo, told how guerrillas govern territories ceded to them by the central government.
Achievements of the Mercosul common market are threatened by protectionist measures provoked by recession and currency over valuation in Argentina and by fiscal imbalances and devaluation in Brazil, leading to calls for "sectoral agreements" for voluntary exports restrictions. Speakers: Guillermo Hunt, Consul-General of Argentina in São Paulo and former chief of Mercosul affairs at Argentina's Foreign Ministry; Roberto Teixeira da Costa, President of CEAL (Latin American Business Council) and Vice President of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics; Roberto Giannetti da Fonseca, President of Silex Trading and Vice President of FUNCEX, the Brazilian Foreign Trade Studies Foundation; Francisco Gros, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley do Brazil and ex-President of the Central Bank of Brazil.
Speech of Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics at the conference of the Argentine Bankers Association, Buenos Aires, July 7, 1999.
An analysis of strategic concepts and diplomatic errors by Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD and Honorary President of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, former Finance Minister of Brazil and Ambassador to the United States.
Discussion of policy initiatives to discipline state and municipal finances to stop recurrent bailouts under threat of debt moratorium and revival of chronic inflation. Speakers: Marcos Mendes, Octávio Bulhões Research Fellow in Political Economy at the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics; Mailson da Nóbrega, former Finance Minister (1988-90) and member of the governing board of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, and Fernando Abrucio, political scientist, author of Os Barões da Federação: Os Governadores e a Redemocratização Brasileira
Lecture on perverse incentives in public finance presented by Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, at an international conference on financial instability at the Jerome Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, April 23, 1999.
Seminar to critique a draft of the World Bank's 1999 World Development Report by members of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics and other specialists, held at the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics.
Lecture to directors and staff of the Central Bank of Brazil by Marcos J. Mendes, Octávio Bulhões Research Fellow in Political Economy at the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, based on a book-sized study just completed. Brasília, February 24, 1999.
Local government responses to fiscal restrictions and international financial crisis. Speakers: Yoshiaki Nakano, Treasury Secretary of São Paulo State; Raul Velloso, senior fiscal policy specialist; Indermit Gill, World Bank; Marcos J. Mendes, Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics; Vinicius Pinheiro, local government pensions specialist, Federal Welfare Ministry; Gilberto Guerzoni, adviser to the Brazilian Senate on administrative reform.
Talk between academics, government technicians, consultants and businessmen to examinate the instruments and the actions of fiscal, monetary, commercial and exchange policies available to the Brazilian government after the Russian moratorium and the lack of confidence of the international market against the emerging countries and the IMF.
Seminar analyzing studies by McKinsey Global Institute on productivity developments and potential in Brazil and Korea, with presentations by authors of the McKinsey reports and comments and debate by company presidents, economists and industry specialists. Discussion focused on confrontation between productivity growth potential of specific industries and the fiscal and high-cost environment of the Brazilian economy.
A meeting of leading economists and businessmen to discuss the fiscal package (new taxes, higher interest rates and spending cuts) announced by the government to deal with the threat to Brazil's currency, reserves and stock prices bred by the Asian crisis.
Should Brazil have a policy to promote specific industries or should the government merely try yo create macroeconomic conditions that favor industrial development? Can state governments, having difficulties paying their debts and meetings payrolls, sustain tax breakes and subsidies to attract industrial investment? These are some of the issues discussed in a seminar led by Professor Wilson Suzigan of the University of Campinas, a leading analyst of Brazilian industrial development and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics. Discussants were Paulo Villares, president of Industrias Villares, and Rolf Leeven, president of Roberto Bosch do Brazil,
Debate on the political constraints and improvements in the fiscal accounts achieved under the economic stabilization plan, looking towards the need for growing surplus to pay interest on the public debt and to revive public investment. Speakers were José Roberto Mendonça de Barros, Secretary for Economic Policy of the Finance Ministry and Amaury Guilherme Bier, economic adviser to the Planning Ministry.
A cycle of three seminars in Belo Horizonte in March-April 1997 organizes by the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics and sponsored by the Associação Comercial de Minas Gerais. The sessions focused on transport (March 13), electric power (April 3) and water and sewage (April 29), with permissions by leading Brazilian and foreign specialists.
Fear of currency devaluation in Brazil is now a main concern of Argentine politicians and businessmen, according to Javier González Fraga, former President of the Argentine Central Bank (1989-91) and a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics. In a seminar on April 15, 1997, González Fraga explained how Argentina effected a de facto devaluation against the dollar through falling prices of non-tradable domestic goods and services while the nominal exchange rates remained unchanged. Commentators were Roberto Teixeira da Costa of Banco Sul América/SAGA and Professor Joaquim Eloi Cirne de Toledo of the University of São Paulo, both members of the Institute
Professor Steven Davis of the University of Chicago, co-author of Job Creation and Destruction (MIT Press 1996), argues that employment creation and stability has been greater in large United States manufacturing firms than in smaller ones and places his research findings in the context of worldwide changes in labor markets. Two Brazilian labor economists, Professors Hélio Zylberstajn of University of São Paulo and Edward Amadeo of the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro explained recent changes in Brazilian employment patterns. Organized jointly with the Instituto Liberal of São Paulo, November 19, 1996.
Ambassador Rubens Ricupero, Honorary President of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, former Finance Minister of Brazil and currently Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), explains the skewed patterns of commitments analyzed in UNCTAD's new World Investment Report 1996. Discussants: former Finance Minister Marcílio Marques Moreira, adviser to General Electric and Merril-Lynch, and Rolf Leevens, President of Bosch do Brasil, both members of the Institute, and Marcos Antônio Magalhães, President of Philips do Brasil.
Two members of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, Luiz Suplicy Hafers, President of Brazilian Rural Society, and José Dirceu, President of the Workers' Party (PT), presented their proposals for agrarian reform in the face of land seizures by the Movimento Sem Terra. The debate addressed issues such as: What is the importance of land reform in a highly urbanized country like Brazil? What is the role of land reform in legitimizing democracy? In view of urgent urban priorities, what financial and human resources can Brazilian society apply to land reform? What will be the priorities for expropriation? How can a corpus of apolitical technical advisers be formed to work in the countryside? What should be the size of plots distributed? How to choose beneficiaries? How can problems of land reform in other Latin American countries be avoided: land theft and abandonment of plots by small farmers?
Seminar led by the Central Bank President Gustavo Loyola to explore institutional problems of central banking and ways to strengthen the capacity of monetary authorities to fulfill their legitimate role without being forced to underwrite banking losses and government deficits bred by fiscal problems that a central bank is powerless to control. Issues discussed included (1) institutional weakness of central banks; (2) supervision of commercial banks; (3) extraneous central bank functions; (4) can a central bank manage fiscal problems?; (5) central bank decapitalization; (6) the Central Bank and Brazilian society. Discussants included former Central Bank Presidents and Directors and former Finance Minister Mailson da Nióbrega, a member of the governing board of the Fernand Braude Institute of World Economics.
Seminar conducted by Professor Richard Graham of the University of Texas, author of Britain and the Onset Modernization in Brazil, 1850-1914 and Patronage and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil. Graham Analyzed patterns of political life of clienteles, families and patronage in search for public employment and in frauds and violence in 19th century elections, comparing these patterns with today's political culture. Discussants: Jorge Caldeira, author of the biography Mauá: O empresário do Império, and two members of the Institute, José Dirceu, president of the Workers Party (PT) and the journalist Roberto Pompeu de Toledo of Veja magazine. São Paulo, May 27, 1996. An edited version of Professor Graham's talk appears in Braudel Papers 14.
Seminar led by Paul Tempest, director-general of World Petroleum Congress and member of the Fernand Braudel Institue of World Economics. Former petroleum adviser to the Bank of England and energy policy strategist for Shell International, Tempest pointed to the prospect of abundant oil supplies and low prices for the near future and the benefits offered by the discovery of large gas reserves in South American heartland. However, he warned of a longer-term threat of a Russian-Iranian condominium controlling oil supplies from the Persian Gulf and the southern tier of states emerging from the former Soviet Union.
Seminar conducted by Peter Knight, director of the Electronic Media Center of the World Bank and a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, with Bob Day and Nebo Legoabe of South Africa's Council for Scientific and Educational Research (CSIR). Discussion of distance education strategies with government, academic and business specialists from São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Paraná
Seminar conducted by Professor Edward Kaufman, director of Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management of the University of Maryland. Discussion focused on the use of terrorism as a political weapon.
An analysis of this new cluster of economic power which, even excluding Japan is expected to grow a middle class in 15 years that would be more numerous than the combined total existing today in North America and Western Europe. Speakers: Jadiel Ferreira de Oliveira, veteran Asia specialist of Brazil's Foreign Ministry and currently Ambassador to Indonesia; Yuichi Tsukamoto, Japanese economist and consultant, and Charles T'ang, President of the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce, both members of the Institute.
The administrative reform launched by the new government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is the most important attempt at restructuring bureaucracy in the past 30 years. Brazil's government's proposals to Congress was Luís Carlos Bresser Pereira, Secretary for Federal Administration and Reform of the State, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics. Discussants were Henrique de Campos Meirelles, President of the Bank of Boston and the American Chamber of Commerce; and two members of the Institute: Antoninho Marmo Trevisan, former Secretary for Control of State Enterprises, and André Medici, economist specializing in social policy.
Seminars organized by the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics and the Chamber of Commerce of Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. Speakers: Professor Jean-Claude Chesnais of the Institute Nacional d'Études Demographiques (Paris), who is leading the Institute's study of violence in Brazil with support of the French government, and Peter Burke of Cambridge University, both members of the Institute; and Teresa Caldeira of the Universities of Campinas and California. Belo Horizonte, August 31; Rio de Janeiro, September 1; São Paulo, September 5, 1995.
Ambassador Rubens Ricupero, president of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics and Finance Minister of Brazil at the time of creation of the new currency, the real, addressed the problems of economic stabilization and the opening of Brazil's economy.
Li Tieying, politburo member of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the State Council on Economic Reform, discussed China's ambitions as a world trading power and the tensions bred by rapid economic growth. São Paulo, May 22, 1995. A summary of Li's remarks were published in Braudel Papers, June 1995.
Professor Fan Gang of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Acaademy of Social Sciences, member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, explained the political tensions bred by the shift of spending and taxing powers to local government and the problems of inflationary credit-creation bred by decentralization.
Peter Knight, director of the World Bank's Electronic Media Center and a founding member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, met with the pioneers of Brazil's distance education movement to discuss prospects for intensifying efforts to enrich public education in deprived areas by using satellite and internet technology.
Treasury Secretary Yoshiaki Nakano analyzed the options open to the state government to deal with a debt of $58 billion, left by previous administrations, and answered critical questions on the need to rethink basic problems of public finance.
Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, compared problems of Calcutta with those of Latin American cities at the University of Calcutta's Center for Urban Economic Research. Calcutta, India, January 5, 1995.
The former Chief Secretary of the State of West Bengal (India), Tarun Dutt, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, explained how Calcutta avoided the collapse that was widely predicted two decades ago. Debate focused on Dutt's essay published in Braudel Papers. Discussants: Carlos Lessa, executive director of the Strategic Plan for Rio de Janeiro; Aspásia Camargo, president of IPEA, the government's economic research institute; Marieta de Moraes Ferreira, historian, of the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics. Rio de Janeiro, December 13, 1994.
Judge Denise Frossard, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics who last year sentenced to jail leading figures of Rio de Janeiro's crime rings, urged placing magistrates in local police stations, along with prosecutors and public defenders, to reduce police corruption and brutality. Discussants: Professor Fábio Konder Comparato of the University of São Paulo Law School and director of the new School of Government and the criminal lawyer Arnaldo Malheiros Filho. Participants included lawyers, judges and police officials.
Professor Paul Sigmund of Princeton University, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, and Professor Francisco Weffort of the University of São Paulo, former Secretary-General of the Workers' Party (PT), discuss the historic and cultural reasons for the strength of Chile's political party system and the weakness of Brazil's.
Finance Minister Ciro Gomes, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, discusses Brazil's stabilization prospects with leading economists and businessmen. Discussion focuses on a paper prepared for the seminar by Professor Celso Martone of the University of São Paulo.
Professors John Williamson of the Institute of International Economics (Washington), Celso Martone and Joaquim Elói Cirne de Toledo of the University of São Paulo, member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, debated the options of Brazilian monetary policy under the Real stabilization plan. Agreement was reached that no monetary policy will be effective without a rapid fiscal adjustment.
Professor Jean-Claude Chesnais of the Institute Nacional d'Études Demographiques (INED) and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics explained why "we are in one of the great ages of international migration". Discussants were Professor Tereza Sales of the University of Campinas and Father Sidney Dornelas, director of the Center for Migration Studies of São Paulo. São Paulo, September 20, 1994. Chesnias is leading a study of violence in Brazil being carried out by the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics with support of the French government. An edited version of his explanation of the revolutionary force of migration trends will appear in the next issue of Braudel Papers.
Professor José Pastore of the University of São Paulo, a founding member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics and author of a new book on the high cost of labor market rigidities, explains how the Brazilian economy has been weakened by accumulation of a long list of acquired rights. Discussants: José Francisco Sequeira of the Center for Labor Economics and Samuel A. Pessoa of the Economics Institute, University of Campinas
Seminar explaining our research project on public health with the Pact of Cooperation, an ad hoc association of business and civic leaders in Fortaleza. Speakers were Norman Gall executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics; André Medici, health economist and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics; Romina Tan Nicaretta of our São Paulo research staff, and members of our Fortaleza research team: Vera Coelho, former planning director of the Health Departments of the City of Fortaleza and the State of Ceará; Dr. Marcelo Gurgel, medical statistician and epidemiologist, Fernando Pires, health economist, and Dr. Policarpo Barbosa, medical historian. Fortaleza, July 25, 1994.
Javier González Fraga, president of Argentina's Central Bank (1989-91) and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, analyzed Argentina's experience with price stability under a fixed exchange rate regime, focusing on political and economic tensions bred by parity with the dollar and their implications for Brazilian stabilization. Discussants: Roberto Teixeira da Costa, president of Brasilpar, and Professor Elói Cirne de Toledo of the University of São Paulo, members of the Institute.
Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, Professors Carlos Longo and Celso Martone of the University of São Paulo, and Aspásia Camargo, president of IPEA, discuss their research mission in Russia for the Institute, focusing on the dramatic increase in mortality and comparisons with Brazil in its federal crisis and the struggle against chronic inflation. Discussants: Professors Oleg Tsukamov of the University of Mato Grosso do Sul and Dimitri Gitman of the University of São Paulo.
Amarílio Proença de Macedo, president of Grupo J. Macedo and a member of our Governing Board, discussed on the experience of the past two state fovernments and the role of businessmen in Brazilian politics.
Ambassador Roberto Abdenur, Secretary General of Brazil's Foreign Ministrym analyzed the ecnomic opening of China and the political factors behind decentralization, as well as current opportunities for Brazilian exports. Discussants: Roberto Macedo former Secretary for Economic Policy, and Charles Andrew T'ang, president of the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce.
This series of four seminars by Professor Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca, occupying the Otávio Bulhões Memorial Research Professorship at the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, focused on the 18th century work of Bernard de Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, in discussing the role of ethics in the operation of modern markets.
Carlos Alberto Primo Braga of the World Bank, a founding member of the Institute and specialist in common market policies, discussed current problems of the European Community, NAFTA, and Mercosul and Brazil's position towards then. Discussant: Roberto Teixeira da Costa, president of Latin American Businessman's Council and a member of our Governing Board, and Roberto Giannetti da Fonseca, president of Silex Trading.
Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, discussed the institutional problems of chronic inflation and capital formation in Latin America in a seminar organized by Pernambuco S.A., an association of business and civic leaders from the state of Pernambuco. Recife. August 9th, 1993.
Professor Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca discussed the moral and social contracts in Brazilian society in the context of the political convulsions of the 1990s. Discussants: Ronaldo Guedes Pereira, president of Champion Papel e Celulose and Rolf Leven, president of Roberto Bosch do Brazil. Campinas. July 15, 1993.
John Williamson of the Institute for International Economics (Washington), discussed world-wide inflation trends, analyzing theoretical errors formulations of stabilizations programs during the 1980s in many countries.
Rubens Ricupero, Brazilian ambassador to the United States and president of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, spoke on perspectives for international trade after the Uruguay Round and under the new trade policies of the Clinton administration. Former President of GATT, Ricupero also focused on institutional problems which threaten the insertion of Brazil into the world economy.
Ambassador Sérgio Silva do Amaral, former advisor on international affairs to the Minister of Finance, analyzed the institutional problems Brazil faces in its intensified participation in the world economy in 1990s. Seminar in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Research on Foreign Relations and São Paulo's Instituto Liberal.
Professor Roberto Macedo of the University of São Paulo, former Federal Secretary for Economic Policy, discussed his eighteen-month experience in Brasília and institutional limits in the formulation of economic policy.
Stephen J. Kanitz, Professor of the University of São Paulo and editor of the "Maiores e Melhores" edition of Exame magazine, explained the high losses of Brazilian companies during 1990-91 and long-term trends in capital formation. Discussants: Roberto Paulo Cezar de Andrade, president of Brascan, and Carlos Antiônio Rocca, president of Mapping department stores and professor of economics at University of São Paulo.
Seminar series by professor Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca held in Joinville, Curitiba and São Paulo. Discussed ethics as a factor of production and the role of inflation in societal behaviour, focusing on the deterioration of morals as a result of unstable currency which fosters "immediateness", opportunism and corruption.
Seminar on the corruption scandals which led to te impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Melo. Presentations were made by three members of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics: José Neumanne, former political editor of O Estado de S. Paulo, Aspásia Camargo, historian of the Fundação Getúlio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro and Márcio Moreira Alves, journalist and political scientist.
Inaugural lecture by Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca of the Octávio Gouvêa de Buolhões Memorial Research Professorship at the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, sponsored by the Grupo Votorantim. Other speakers were former Finance Minister Antônio Delfim Netto and businessman Antônio Ermírio de Moraes.
Professor Robert Levine of the University of Miami, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, discussed the military repression of the Canudos religious movement in the backlands of Bahia a century ago, illustrated in his video, Canudos Novo, and interpreted in his new book, Vale of Tears (University of California Press, 1992). Professor Aspásia Camargo of the Fundação Getúlio Vargas discussed Canudos in terms of new regional conflicts in Brazil, aggravated by the 1988 Constitution.
Seminar by Professor Barry Eichengreen of the University of California at Berkeley, a member of the Institute's International Advisory Board.
Seminar by Dr. Eduardo Arriaga of the United States Census Bureau, a leading analyst of mortality tendencies in Latin America.
Members of the Institute debating prospects were former Finance Minister Mailson da Nóbrega, former Central Bank President Afonso Celso Pastore, and Professors Carlos Alberto Longo, Celso Martone and Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca.
Seminar by Rinaldo Campos Soares, president of Usiminas, and steel industry leaders and investment bankers involved in the privatization process.
Seminar led by Thomas Merrick, president of the Population Reference Bureau and member of the Institute's International Advisory Board. Debate led by Professor Vilmar Faria of the University of Campinas, president of CEBRAP (Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning) and a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics.
Led by Javier González Fraga, former president of the Argentina Central Bank and member of the Institute's International Advisory Board.
Seminar led by John Williamson of the Institute for International Economics, member of the Institute's International Advisory Board. Discussants: former Central Bank President Affonso Celso Pastore and former Finance Minister Mailson da Nóbrega.
Seminar by Rodolfo Rodrigues, former Argentine Minister of Health and representative of the World Health Organization in Brazil. Debating this issue were members of the Institute: Wagner da Costa, director of São Paulo's center for Epidemological Control; André Médice, health economist of the IBGE, and Mailson da Nóbrega, former Finance Minister (1988-1990).
Seminar by Shigeki Ueki, former Minister of Mines and Energy and president of Petrobrás, the Brazilian state oil monopoly.
Seminar by Ambassador Rubens Ricupero, President of the Contracting Parties of GATT in Geneva.
Seminar by Celso Luiz Martone, a member of the Institute and Professor at the University of São Paulo.
A ten week seminar series by Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca on Smith's The Wealth of Nations and other works.
Disucssion of the first weeks of the Menem government in Argentina and prospects for the government of President-elect Fernando Collor in Brazil. Led by Adolfo Canitrot, former Deputy Economics Minister in Argentina, and Fernando Fazjnzilber, of CEPAL (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America.
Lecture by Professor Robert Williams of Princeton University, a member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado.
Speech by Norman Gall at the São Paulo Federation of Industries (FIESP).
Seminar by Paul Tempest, director of Royal Dutch Shell's energy policy group. Other speakers included former Minister of Mines and Energy Shigeaki Ueki; Norman Gall; and Diomedes Christodoulo and Roberto Hukai, authors of a study by the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics on decapitalization of the state electric energy sector in Brazil.
Speech by Norman Gall at the American Chamber of Commerce.
Seminar at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP) by the Professor Kotaro Hirosaka of Sophia University, in Tokyo, and member of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics.
Seminar at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP) by Professor Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College.
Inaugural conference of the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics, sponsored by the United Nations. Speakers included Professor Andrea Boltho of Oxford University; Brazilian Finance Minister Maílson da Nóbrega; Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca; Professor Takao Fukuchi of Kyoto University; Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University; Ambassador Rubens Ricupero; Martin Mayer and Norman Gall. São Paulo, from August 31 to September 2 of 1988.