Until 1980/81 it was not reasonable to suppose that the U.S.A. could be able
to reaffirm its hegemony upon their Western competitors, neither they had tried to pass to
a new international economic order and to a new labor division which they could control.
Today this probability is very high. In case the U.S.A. keep the present policy with the same
vigour until 1988, without causing an internal or international financial crash, then they will
complete a decade of absorption of liquidity, capital, and credit from the rest of the world.
The U.S.A. will also reach a five-year growth at the expense of the relative stagnation of their
more important capitalist competitors.

JEL Classification: F34; P10.

This paper provides a critical evaluation of some aspects of the recent debate on
fiscal policy in Brazil. It argues that orthodox as well as heterodox analyses of the size of the
fiscal deficit tend to incur conceptual or factual errors that seriously obstruct an adequate
understanding of the issues involved. A mistaken comprehension of certain basic concepts
and even a tendency to disregard available statistical information are shown to be some of
the main causes of the inconclusive nature of the discussions about the state of public finance
in Brazil. Section I examines the conceptual difficulties involved in the application of
the concept of public sector borrowing requirements as defined in the IMF programme for
Brazil. Section II discusses the validity of the statistics on the public sector’s “operational”
deficit and the assumption that public finances are now basically under control. The final
section summarizes the main conclusions.

JEL Classification: H62.

A few articles appeared recently in the Brazilian economic literature discussing
the role played by the minimum wage in the determination of the wage rate in the formal
sector of the economy. This paper tries to shed some light on the discussion through the utilization
of new empirical evidence. We end up concluding that minimum wage is very important
to determine the wage rate in Brazil.

JEL Classification: J31; J38.

The industrialization policy executed in several developing countries (Brazil and
Mexico, for example) produced an unusually fast growth of these economies when such policy
succeeded. Nevertheless, the recent evolution shows that the main problems were not really
solved. Through the development of a model, this paper studies at length the mechanism
of social disarticulation, which is understood as the incapacity of the modern sector to promote
the development of the whole economy, particularly in the Brazilian case (from 1968
to 1973), at the top of what was then called “the Brazilian miracle”.

JEL Classification: O15; O41; J30.

The least developed countries are accumulating record levels of external debt.
on this piece, we aim to indicate how this debt is linked to a transformation of the pattern
of international capital flows, resulting from the birth of capitalist classes in such countries.

JEL Classification: F21; F34; O16.

The transition to a new, more free regime in Brazil will undergo during an economic
crisis, limited space for economic policy choices, chronic imbalance of fiscal accounts,
and very high inflation. This short note debates these issues and how to overcome them.

JEL Classification: P11; O20.

This is a response to Nicol (1984, edition 16 of this journal) on the reduction of
profit rate in Ricardo.

JEL Classification: B12; D24.

This is a reply to the response of Hoffmann (1985, edition 17 of this journal) in
an ongoing debate about the reduction of profit rate in Ricardo.

JEL Classification: B12; D24.

An introduction to the symposium of proposals to eliminate the indexation and
very high inflation in Brazil.

JEL Classification: E31.

The author formulated a proposal with base on a new indexed currency with
the objective of overcoming the deadlock in which the economic policy of the inflation fight
has come to. This piece is both a response to criticism and an opportunity to comment suggestions.

JEL Classification: E31; E30.

This is a proposal to eliminate the inertial inflation and build a new monetary
regime in Brazil.

JEL Classification: E31.

This essay is a compilation of conclusions of the author’s research in the past
years regarding the mechanics of the inflationary process. The central piece is the idea of inertia
in contrast to the idea that inflation is solely influenced by expectations.

JEL Classification: E31.