Lula wins interest rate debate and is treated as defeated – 02/16/2023 – Reinaldo Azevedo

Lula won the interest rate debate — less so in editorials, in columnism and, justice to the respective coverage, also in the news. Roberto Campos Neto, president of the Central Bank, emerged as the candidate for national son-in-law or father-in-law. He is flat, smooth, polite and suggests some introspection and inner life. He even advertised and preached “goodwill” with the government. Wow! If you are interested, try to find out what the “Semiotic Square of Greimas” is to identify who Campos Neto understands to be the “donor” and the “doneary” in this relationship. It is a conception of the State so absurd that it is not even wrong — it is the evil of an era; come back to the point later. It’s very bold for someone who can’t explain why we have the highest interest rate on Earth. Incomparable as pororoca.

The proselytism that took place on the issue suggests a defeat for the PT by knockout. I leave, in principle, economics to the plethora of experts (with “x”). What bothers me, with regard to politics, is the authoritarian screaming that tries to revoke the word of the President of the Republic, as if the Central Bank were the burning bush, which cannot even be looked at, from which emanates the revealed word of the One Who Doesn’t It has a name. It is incompatible with democracy. “Ah, but you criticized Bolsonaro when he attacked the STF.” Fact. If you have to explain the difference, the effort will be futile. Then no. Forward.

In a BTG Pactual seminar, a threesome of gold from the market maintained, on Wednesday (15), that the inflation target pursued by the Central Bank is unattainable. I am referring to Luís Stuhlberger (Verde Asset), Rogério Xavier (SPX Capital), the most emphatic, and André Jakurski (JGP). I am not listing them as people who endorse my views. I remember the case of Stuhlberger: his opinion on the Transition PEC was all over the press. And I disagreed with everything.

Xavier said: “We only reached 3% inflation once, in 2016. Now that we’ve gone through all these inflationary situations, Brazil decided to set the target at 3%. In the US, the target is 3.5% and in Brazil will be 3%? It’s a lack of common sense”. And yet: “People in supermarkets live with inflation of 10%, 12%. It is another reality. I think that the cost of carrying a goal of this size is gigantic, whether financial, social or political, because, once you don’t reach the targets, the Central Bank is restrictive in monetary policy”. Luiz Carlos Trabuco, chairman of Bradesco’s Board of Directors, said this Thursday (16): “Today, we realize that the debate on the interest rates needed to combat inflation is permeated with considerations on economic activity and employment. It is fair and correct to give more complexity to the topic of monetary policy”.

I wonder if Three Aces and a Trabuco will be seen as idiots or as part of “those people” —one must say it with a mixture of contempt and irony— who won the elections to destroy the landmarks of our capitalism because they imagine, as one wrote columnist, “being still in Vila Euclides”. The question is rhetorical. It is certain that businessmen will be treated with respect. And so it should be. Here’s the rub.

It is understood to be legitimate for market operators to disagree with BC decisions with a hardness that Lula did not dare to have, but anathema is pronounced against the heretic who holds a popular mandate. In the origin, there is the hatred of politics, which led us to contemplate the abyss, and an aversion to the State typical of poorly digested liberal theses. They aspire to see it divided into “independent” autarchies in the name of efficiency. It is a reissue of medieval guilds. “They worship another Middle Ages located in the future, not in the past”, with metaverse and ChatGPT. Not that they would invite me, but I refuse to participate in the Chicago 5th grade intellectual riot.

Lula took upon himself the political responsibility of accusing the “autonomous” king of his nudity. The democracies retired the absolutist monarch and raised to power, by vote, the old fools, who had nothing of donkeys (Read “O Bobo”, by Alexandre Herculano). And they did so to break the silence and false consensus of courtiers. As can be seen, not even the golden trio explains why our interest rates are the biggest drop on Earth.

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