G20 Meetings

Mr. Mantega directly criticized the American central bank’s Ben Bernanke in a reference to throwing dollars from a helicopter. The Economist notes that Mr. Mantega was one of many foreign bankers who make similar criticisms of quantitative easing. “Fears of foreign capital were only deepened by the Federal Reserve’s decision earlier this month to embark on another round of “quantitative easing”, buying an extra $600 billion of government bonds with freshly printed money. Some think the Fed’s policy is feckless. “It does no good at all to just throw dollars from a helicopter,” said Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister. Others reckon it is reckless. If the issuers of the world’s reserve currencies do not show more restraint, another crisis is inevitable, wrote Xia Bin, an academic on China’s monetary-policy committee. By squeezing the yield on American assets, the Fed’s buying spree will only swell the tide of capital flowing elsewhere.”

This is part of my survey of the 30 best articles from The Economist over the past two years to gain insight into whether Brazilian attitudes towards America have declined, and global attitudes towards Brazil — comments welcome!