In this week’s Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures podcast series, BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur interviews Alex Schwartsman is a Brazilian economist and former Director of International Affairs of the Central Bank of Brazil.The interview examines the genesis of Brazil’s recent economic and political crisis. Schwartsman argues that Brazil is trapped by a large government apparatus where policy making has captured by special interest groups, both in the private and public sector. While he supports the Bolsa Familia anti-poverty transfer programme, he’s extremely critical of Brazil’s bloated social security system, arguing that the country is a “European social democracy trapped in the body of an emerging economy.”
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