| To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (51149) | 6/20/2004 10:48:31 PM | | From: elmatador | of 74257 | | | The masses have to be satisfied not to revolt. In North America and Europe the masses are kept satisfied. In Brazil and other countries too, albeit at a lower level. That because it costs less to satisfy an individual in Brazil and Saudi Arabia than it costs to satisfy one in North America.
Brazil has soccer and carneval. Saudi Arabia has the Koran. You are the North American, perhaps you could tell us how the masses are kept satisfied there.
Is it not one-man one-vote? There lies the power of the masses. They have to be persuaded to vote at the least possible cost.
Don;t take my workd:
Here an article to illustrate how the mass is persuaded to vote:
Brazilian Bonds Decline After Lula Loses Wage Vote in Senate
June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian bonds fell after the Senate voted to almost double President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 8.3 percent minimum wage proposal.
The Senate's vote for a 14.5 percent increase heightened concern that Lula is losing support in congress, which would make it tougher for him to keep spending in check and push through legislation to boost an economic recovery, said Raphael Kassin at ABN Amro Management Services Ltd.
``The government apparently doesn't have the political support it thought it had,'' said Kassin, who manages $1.3 billion of emerging-market bonds at ABN in London. ``The risks are such that we could have big surprises and bonds could suffer big losses. Because of this, we don't have any Brazilian bonds right now.''
Brazil's benchmark bond due 2040 fell for the first day in four, dropping 1.3 cents on the dollar to 91.95 cents at 5:30 p.m. in New York, according to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. The bond's yield rose 16 basis points, or 0.16 percentage point, to 11.97 percent.
Finance Minister Antonio Palocci said he's confident the lower house will vote down the Senate's proposal and back Lula's 8.3 percent increase, to 260 reais ($83) a month. The vote in the lower house, which had approved the 8.3 percent raise in an earlier vote, is the final vote in congress.
`Humility'
The Senate ``vote was an episode that has to be seen with humility so that the government accepts it and analyzes the result,'' Palocci said after a ceremony held at the presidential palace in Brasilia. ``The government has a political majority in congress. There will be no political or economic cost.''
Analysts and investors such as Carlos Lopes at Santafe Ideias in Brasilia and Henry Stipp at Threadneedle Asset Management in London agreed that the government will be able to muster enough backing in the lower house again for its proposal.
Lula, 58, lost the vote in the Senate yesterday even after calling Senate leaders to a meeting in the president palace on Wednesday to lobby for their support on the wage bill. Lula's coalition has a majority in both houses of congress.
``There's something wrong in the way they negotiate with the ruling coalition,'' Lopes said in a telephone interview.
The Senate approved, in a 44-to-31 vote, a raise to 275 reais a month from the current 240 reais. Lula's proposal would boost the wage to 260 reais a month.
The minimum wage is used to peg salaries and social security benefits for about 20 million Brazilians. Passage of Lula's minimum wage proposal would limit the increase in the country's social security deficit to 6 billion reais ($1.9 billion), according to the Social Security Ministry, helping prevent the nation's budget gap from swelling.
An 8.3 percent increase would also push up the government's payroll costs by about 600 million reais, Planning Minister Guido Mantega said in April. An 8.3 percent increase would be less than last year's 9.3 percent inflation rate. Inflation has since slowed to 5.2 percent in the 12 months through May. |
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