This article focuses on the contradictory position of the United States in its economic policies towards Latin America. By pressuring the region to maintain its debt service, the U.S. government left Latin American countries with little choice but to produce large trade surpluses, as voluntary capital flows to the region dried up in the 1980s. Simultaneous U.S. insistence, however, that Latin American countries curtail their export incentive programs and liberalize their imports, makes debt servicing even more difficult and imposes heavy burdens on Latin American societies.

JEL Classification: H63; F53; F34.

During the eighties, Brazil’s agricultural sector had a non-negligible growth,
in spite of very unfavorable internal and external economic circumstances. Such a growth
occurred at the same time as available credit was declining, the subsidies eliminated, with
an external recession, fall in commodities’ prices and low growth in internal demand. This
paper seeks to explain this growth with unfavorable conditions. In addition, it looks at
which adjustments the sector needs to make in the case Brazil is able to resume its growth
during the present decade.

JEL Classification: Q11; Q13.

This paper shows the relationship between the economic activity level and relative
prices in Brazil during the 80’s. In these two sectors model the monthly computed economic
variables are: index of industrial production, index of agricultural prices and index of
industrial prices. These variables were seasonally adjusted. The result suggests that agricultural
prices decrease relatively to industrial prices during periods of economic crises, while
the agricultural prices increase relatively to industrial prices during periods of economic
growth, accordingly to the model used on the analysis.

JEL Classification: Q11; E31.

According to the available data, real wage has been declining since 1980, in
terms of wage goods, mainly food, even in the presence of several nominal wage policies.
The main consequence has been the acceleration of the national income concentration,
against the labor share. In order to solve this problem and to increase the real wages, the
government should adopt a program in the direction of the economic development. To make
this possible, it is necessary: (a) to concentrate the investment in the wage goods production;
(b) to stimulate the wage goods demand and (c) to utilize the “normal” external prices as a
price indicator to the Brazilian agriculture producer.

JEL Classification: J31; J38.

This paper shows that the world strategy of the automobile industry has determined
the modernization of Brazilian automakers. However, considering the real capital/
labour relation in Brazil, the introduction of microelectronic equipment in production process
not only has been concentrated on the production “key-points”, but also takes place in
a quite lower level than the same plants in highly industrialized countries. The adoption of
this technology has reinforced the of the Scientific Labour Organization. We can identify the
extension of line concept inside the factory, as well as the deterioration of labour quality and
increase of labour intensity.

JEL Classification: J31; O14; O33.

Starting from a rather simple theorem by Scheffold a set of sufficient conditions
is found for the system pAp = Bp to have a solution with p > 1 and p > 0, where A and B are
nxn positive matrices. It is shown that such a system would be an extension of the system
pAp = Ip for which the Perron-Frobenius theorem holds.

JEL Classification: B51.

The paper outlines the relation of Japan, especially its private banking facilities,
to the Latia America foreign problem. It gives relevant background information and examines
the approach taken by Japanese financial circles. Japan has now become the country
with the world’s biggest trade surplus and is regarded as having the largest financial reserves.
But Japan’s presence in discussing fundamental debt relief measures has not been significant
as its total amount of credit might imply.

JEL Classification: F34; H63.

On March 16, 1990, the day after his inauguration, the President of the Republic,
Fernando Collor de Mello, supported by the Minister of Economy, Zélia Cardoso de
Mello, and the President of the Central Bank, Ibrahim Éris, presented the country with a new
stabilization plan, which has been called the Collor Plan. The Plan consists of a large number
of provisional measures and other legal documents. We publish in this Document the summary
of the Plan based on the article published in Gazeta Mercantil, Provisional Measure n.
168, the Plan’s main instrument, and the main articles published in the Brazilian press in the
three weeks following its implementation.

JEL Classification: E31; E52