1. The economic program of Mr. Henrique Meirelles, current Minister of Finance; former chairman of BankBoston between 1996 and 1999 and of FleetBoston Financial; former president of the Central Bank from 2003 to 2010, and, between 2012 and 2016, chairman of the Board of Directors of the holding J&F, owned by Joesley Batista, is Programa do Mercado.
  2. It is the program fervently desired (and promoted with resources) by bankers, rentiers, large commercial and industrial entrepreneurs, large landowners, owners of large media, managers of large fortunes, executives of large companies and their representatives in Congress.
  3. The Market can be defined as being made up of around 200 people who spontaneously declare, when filling out their annual income tax returns, that they have monthly income above 80 minimum wages (about 80 reais per month).
  4. The members of this entity, created and called by the media and the Academia de Mercado, are less than 0,2% of the Brazilian adult population (about 120 million individuals) and face the other 207 million individuals, who are more than 99% of the Brazilian people. Among the 26 million Brazilians who must, according to the legislation, present income and property declarations, they are less than 1% of income tax returnees.
  5. Meirelles' Reform Program, which are counter-reforms that promote an economic and social setback to the period before 1930. These counter-reforms, which the overwhelming majority of the people reject, are a program ruthlessly imposed on Brazil, being, in reality, the (anachronistic) execution of the policies recommended by the Washington Consensus.
  6. The Washington Consensus is a list of ten policies developed by technicians from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the United States Department of the Treasury and American academics, as the most appropriate and (even the only ) capable of promoting the development of backward, underdeveloped countries such as Brazil.
  7. This Consensus, which dates back to 1989, takes up the principles of classical economic theory and policy from the times of the gold standard and prior to JMKeynes, at a time in American economic policy characterized by the success of its efforts to open markets, financial deregulation and the apotheosis of globalization; and foreign policy, due to its victory over Iraq in the first Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the greatest political and military victory in which not a single bullet was spent.
  8.  The application of the Washington Consensus policies, required by the “conditionalities” of the IMF and the World Bank for the granting of loans and by the provisions of free trade agreements, a version of the “unequal agreements” of the XNUMXth century, did not lead to the development of countries of Latin America and Africa.
  9.  The distance, in terms of per capita income, participation in the World Product and world trade, number of registered patents, etc. between highly developed and underdeveloped countries (which China should not be included) has not decreased between 1989, the date of the Consensus, and the present day.
  10.  From a structural point of view, these countries continued to be characterized as producers/exporters of raw materials and importers of industrial products, showing serious disparities and poverty, and little or no technological dynamism.
  11. Those countries that developed and grew rapidly after 1989 were those that did not follow these Consensus policies (always advocated by the United States, economic bodies and developed countries), with special emphasis on China, and partly on India.
  12. The execution of Mr. Henrique Meirelles' Program is carried out with the collaboration of Mr. Ilan Goldfajn and Mr. Dyogo Oliveira, and technicians working at the Treasury, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Planning, who are presented under the expression “economic team”.
  13. The Reform Program carried out by Henrique Meirelles and his assistants, with the help of the National Congress, is the implementation, in Brazil, of the Washington Consensus.
  14. The Washington Consensus and H. Meirelles Program policies are ten:
  • fiscal discipline;
  • reduction in public spending;
  • tax reform;
  • market interest;
  • market exchange;
  • commercial opening;
  • elimination of restrictions on foreign direct investment;
  • privatization of state enterprises;
  • deregulation ;
  • right to intellectual property.
  1. A fiscal discipline, first principle of the Consensus, which means an effort to promote a rigorous balance between public revenues and expenditures, eliminates the possibility of indebtedness of the State to carry out counter-cyclical policies, to face unemployment and underemployment, and to carry out structural and indispensable investments for development sustained by a country.
  2. The fiscal discipline, central point of the Meirelles Program, is imposed by Constitutional Amendment 95, which freezes “primary” expenditures for 20 years, without touching the State’s expenditure on public debt, which amounts to almost 50% of the total budget and public spending, without allowing for an increase in revenues, rejecting the fight against tax evasion and to the evasion of foreign exchange, and, implicitly, denying the possibility of tax increases and tax reform.
  3. The second principle of the Consensus, which is the reduction in public spending, means the reduction of primary expenditures on State activities in public security, justice, defense; in social programs such as education and public health; with the Assistance and Public Welfare; with infrastructure investments etc.
  4. H. Meirelles does not consider reducing State expenditures with the service and amortization of the public debt, corresponding to more than 50% of the budget, which results from the extraordinary levels, in international terms, of the reference interest rate established by the Central Bank ( SELIC) nor to control the revenues that the financial sector earns with the practice of very high interest rates that inhibit the population's consumption and business investment.
  5. The policy of reducing State expenditure is sought through the same Constitutional Amendment 95 that froze primary expenditure at the level of expenditure carried out in 2017, for twenty years, that is, until 2037.
  6. Some consequences of reducing public spending (or privatizing public programs) are as follows:
  • reduction of Bolsa Família, which currently serves 25% of the population, which will result in an increase in absolute poverty;
  • reduction of care for children in early childhood;
  • reduction of the SUS and worsening of the health situation of the mass of poor citizens, unable to pay for medicine and medical assistance;
  • reduction of investments in education and its privatization, which will exclude the poor from access to education;
  • reduction of investments in defense, necessary for a deterrence policy, essential for a country with the geographic, population and economic dimensions of Brazil.
  • reduction of investments in science and technology.
  1. The third principle, the tax reform, advocated by the Washington Consensus does not mean a reform of the tax system to make it less regressive, that is, less levied on the poorest, but rather to reduce taxes on capital and social security contributions of companies to, with the increase in the perspective profit of companies, achieve the objective of stimulating private investments.
  2. This is what the Ministry of Finance and Meirelles, the main articulator of the Temer Government's economic policy, seems to intend, as can be seen from the Government's discreet manifestations on the subject.
  3. Henrique Meirelles’ unwillingness to review tax exemptions and collect the Union’s active debt, which exceeds the amount of 1,8 trillion reais, and the debts of private companies to Social Security, which reach more than 400 billion of reais; debt refinancing programs (REFIS) which are, in reality, debt forgiveness programs; tolerance with the decisions of the Administrative Council of the Federal Revenue Service-CARF in favor of large companies and against the state; tolerance for the evasion of foreign exchange abroad, reveal, as a whole, the nature of the tax reform that Meirelles is, in practice, carrying out for the benefit of capital and against labor.
  4. The practice of market interest, the fourth recommendation of the Washington Consensus, means that the State should not implement subsidized interest policies to stimulate and strengthen national capital companies in their competition, domestically and internationally, with multinational mega-companies that, in addition to the resources of their treasuries, have easy access to financing from public banks in their States and from multinational private megabanks.
  5. Meirelles' policy of replacing the TJLP-long-term interest rate, charged by BNDES on loans to companies (not only national, but also foreign) by the TLP-Long-term rate, which will make the interest charged by BNDES approach market interest rates, a floating rate, is one of the instruments of the privatization policy of Brazilian public banks, in the case of BNDES, it also aims to benefit foreign companies operating in Brazil and force Brazilian companies to finance themselves with banks private companies that practice interest rates (to companies) that exceed 30% per year, rates that make any productive investment unfeasible.
  6. The Washington Consensus fifthly recommends that underdeveloped countries adopt a market exchange policy, that is, that the State does not interfere in any way in the foreign exchange market and that it does not control in any way the inflows and outflows of capital from the economy and, therefore, allows the intense speculation that exists in the world foreign exchange market.
  7. The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank carry out an overvalued exchange policy, that is, the real has a value against the dollar much higher than what would be convenient to promote industrial development and the necessary private investments, a policy that hinders Brazilian exports. , floods the domestic market with imports of cheap industrial products (mainly from China, but not only from China), stimulates tourism expenditure, etc. and denationalizing Brazilian industry, which, increasingly weakened, is gradually being sold at “very good” prices, according to specialists in selling Brazil.
  8. The exchange rate policy is pro-appreciation of the real with the objective of using the high interest rate policy to attract foreign capital in speculative investments.
  9. A commercial opening, the sixth policy recommended by the Washington Consensus, which enshrines the international division of labor between primary and industrial countries. This is Henrique Meirelles' objective insofar as he practices a policy of full freedom for foreign industrial products to enter Brazil, even when there are dumping situations.
  10. The consequences of this opening policy can be seen in the deficits in the trade balance of industrial products with highly industrialized countries and with China; because there is no regulation of the export of agricultural products, which is highly favored by the Government's credit policy (which benefits countries that import Brazilian primary products); by the decision to extinguish the access to favored credit to companies installed in Brazil that was granted by BNDES; for the elimination of the national content policy; by the weak defense of Brazilian policies denounced at the World Trade Organization-WTO by industrial exporting countries that seek to prevent the emergence of competitors while, in Brazil, the mantra of competitiveness and productivity is endlessly repeated, in fact, arguments to promote the reduction wages and benefits for workers.
  11. Henrique Meirelles intends to consolidate his neoliberal program through Brazil's accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-OECD, which brings together the most developed countries in the world to articulate common positions in negotiations and in international organizations, without listening to society or the National Congress. , locking (lock in) all its ultra-neoliberal policy and making its eventual revision, even if it turns out to be indispensable due to the development needs of a country with the characteristics of Brazil, more difficult, as its revision would go against “International commitments”.
  12. Henrique Meirelles also intends to promote, at any cost, a free trade agreement with the European Union, which will lead to the conclusion of free trade agreements with the United States, China, Japan and other countries and will eliminate any possibility of development industrial sector in Brazil due to the elimination of its main instrument, which is the tariff policy.
  13. These agreements will mean the end of Mercosur's common external tariff and, therefore, the end of any policy of regional integration and the formation of a South American bloc.
  14. The seventh principle of the Washington Consensus, which determines the elimination of restrictions on foreign direct investment, it has been put into practice in particular by the market exchange policy; by the privatization and denationalization of state-owned companies, without any precaution of a strategic nature, as occurs in developed countries in relation to sectors such as electricity, ports and means of communication; opening up exploration of pre-salt reserves to foreign oil mega-companies; by the policy of fragmentation and sale to oil multinationals of companies in the Petrobras complex; by the end of the national content policy.
  15.  Other government policies favoring foreign capital are opening up service sectors such as health and education; the sale of land to foreigners; environmental deregulation and the opening of forest reserves to economic exploitation, especially mining.
  16. Operation Lava Jato contributed in an important way to creating in public opinion an image of Petrobras as a corrupt and inefficient company, from the permanent disclosure to the press of award-winning accusations involving company directors and politicians, despite its production capacity and its technological leadership in the oil sector.
  17. In reality, the objective of Meirelles' policy is to reduce the State to a minimum, eliminating its competence and regulatory and supervisory role in economic activity (including in the tax system) and as an investor, and transferring all economic activity to the private company, but especially to the foreign company, promoting a broad process of denationalization of the economy that occurs, even, in parallel with the elimination of any support to companies with national capital.
  18. The implementation of the eighth principle of the Washington Consensus, which recommends the privatization of state enterprises, was announced in the Investment Partnerships Program-PPI since the beginning of the Temer Government and has now accelerated with the political crisis and the fiscal imbalance aggravated by the need to articulate political support in Congress to prevent the approval of the opening of the investigation process against President Michel Temer and to compensate for the constant drop in tax revenue, due to the economic recession caused by the recessive policy that Henrique Meirelles provokes by rigorously executing the policies recommended by the Washington Consensus and the Market.
  19. Now, the privatization of 57 companies has been announced, including Eletrobrás, Casa da Moeda and major airports, and the Petrobras divestment program, carried out by Pedro Parente, is proceeding in a discreet manner, which will transform Petrobras, a large integrated and highly competitive oil company on the international stage, in a small oil exporting company, especially to the United States.
  20. Henrique Meirelles is committed to privatizing public banks, as Ilan Goldfajn, president of the Central Bank, revealed, when he said, in a press interview, that “high interest rates” (or the spread) in the Brazilian market resulted from the lack of competition in the financial sector, which should be open to foreign banks.
  21. The policy of deregulation it is the ninth policy sponsored by the Washington Consensus that means, at the very least, the loosening of economic and labor legislation.
  22. The Market Economic Program, executed by Henrique Meirelles, strictly follows this Consensus recommendation in all sectors of economic activity, starting with the labor reform, with the reduction of the attributions of the unions; the weakening of Labor Justice and inspection; the prevalence of the negotiated over the legislated; outsourcing in all company activities; intermittent working hours; the possibility of mass dismissal of workers; end of the union tax, maintaining the S system of employers; expansion of temporary contracts; end of the workbook.
  23. The Public Welfare reform will mean, due to the migration of the richest and even the poorest taxpayers, who will perceive the uselessness of contributing due to the new deadlines and retirement requirements, privatization and the end of Social Security in Brazil for the poorest, whose income will not allow them to pay for private pension plans.
  24. In the environmental area, flexibility is achieved through the transfer from the Union to the States of competence for the determination of environmental reserves; by reducing environmental impact reporting requirements; flexibility in the use of pesticides.
  25. The entire program of privatization (and denationalization) of state-owned companies also corresponds to a broad deregulation of economic activity for the benefit of private companies, but not of workers.
  26. The weakening of economic regulation will be aggravated by the reduction of the State's inspection activities, which will result from the atrophy of inspection bodies due to cuts in resources and personnel.
  27. The tenth recommendation of the Washington Consensus concerns intellectual property protectionthrough legislation that is more favorable to patent and trademark holders who are, in general, multinational mega-companies.
  28. There is a permanent effort by the Government, through the National Institute of Industrial Property-INPI, to reduce the deadlines for examining requests for granting patents, without establishing any obligation to manufacture in Brazil, which makes the patent an import monopoly, and the reduction of novelty requirements, in addition to no inspection and significant and increasing remittances of payments abroad for technologies, which are often obsolete, and for the use of brands, which is absurd.Consequences of the Henrique Meirelles Program
  29. The high degree of urbanization of Brazilian society makes it necessary for the existence and expansion of industry, which is the dynamic sector of any large developed economy.
  30.  The mechanization of large-scale export-oriented agriculture does not generate enough jobs and expels labor from the countryside to the cities, which worsens the situation of the urban population in terms of employment, housing, health, education, etc.
  31.  The trend towards automation and robotization in the industrial sector, without any policy to face this challenge, means that, even if there is an increase in production, the generation of industrial jobs is reduced.
  32. The lack of an export policy for industrial products, which includes the active participation of foreign companies, and the permanent inflow of foreign capital necessary to balance the balance of payments, due to the structural deficit in the current accounts, generates the prospect of a future exchange rate crisis. , despite the current significant reservations.
  33.  The concentration of income and wealth will tend to deepen continuously, as will other internal disparities and external vulnerabilities. Urban and rural violence will tend to worsen significantly.
  34. The holders of large fortunes will tend to become absentees, that is, they will live abroad, as is already the case with many of their families and heirs.
  35. The Economic Market Program carried out by Henrique Meirelles will consolidate Brazil's situation as a producer and exporter of primary agricultural and mineral products, especially oil, and as a territory for the exploitation of labor with the installation of multinational mega-companies to explore a domestic market. medium-sized, around thirty million consumers, but which is larger than the domestic market of many European countries (in number of consumers), surrounded by these 30 million by 170 million of an anomic mass of unemployed, underemployed and miserable.

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