Brazil: an emerging market riser

One of the great gainers from falling global interest rates will be emerging market financial assets – though not everywhere. I’ve just visited one emerging market that should outperform this year: Brazil.

Brazil’s artificially constructed capital is Brasilia. In Brasilia, the Congress building is surrounded by concrete wings jutting out into the sky at right angles. They house the government ministries. It is a symmetric idealized vision of the perfect corporate state, built under the old 1980s dictatorship, where everything was planned and nothing flew.