Video transcript
Painel Haddad (16/12/2020) - Paulo Nogueira Batista
301 statements · 1 politicians · December 16, 2019 · 30 min
Statements by Fernando Haddad. 301 transcribed statements, with topic and stance on the ones the analysis classified.
Speakers
Click any statement beside the video to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Transcript
301 statementsFull transcript of the video. Statements the analysis classified carry topic and stance.
My guest today has been a professor and researcher at Fundação Getúlio Vargas since 1989.
Previously, he worked at the Ministry of Planning with João Sayad and at the Ministry of Finance with Dilson Funaro.
He was a researcher at the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP and the author of several books on economics.
Good evening, Paulo Nogueira Batista.
Desconhecido
Good evening.
Desconhecido
How are you?
Desconhecido
Fine, thank you.
What is true about what people... commonly think about the IMF?
Desconhecido
I noticed, for example, that over the period when I was there, the IMF changed for the better in its macroeconomic assessment.
Desconhecido
Thanks to the work of some people, for example, I would single out Domenico Stauskarn, who was managing director of the IMF, the number one in the administration, the former French presidential candidate, a socialist, who was an open-minded person with a certain Keynesian background.
Desconhecido
And he brought in as chief economist Olivier Blanchard, who is a great macroeconomist, a neo‑Keynesian, flexibly open as well.
Desconhecido
And also with the work of some chairs — the Brazilian, the Russian, the Indian.
Desconhecido
We opened up the IMF's thinking.
Desconhecido
So much so that I'll tell you that I think that today, even with a certain rollback that happened after the departure of Dominique Strauss‑Kahn and Olivier Blanchard, and the normalization of the crisis — the crisis eased — that caused a certain rollback.
Desconhecido
But even with this rollback in the Fund's intellectual reforms, I would say that the Fund's economic thinking today is more advanced than what passes for economic orthodoxy in Brazil.
So, the IMF today would be a good influence on Brazilian economists, is that what you're saying?
Desconhecido
It would be; it would be good for many Brazilian economists to read the studies and research that the Fund produces, because they are often interesting.
Desconhecido
Now, having said that, I don't want to paint a picture of the IMF as a wonder, no, not at all.
Desconhecido
The IMF is a government‑governed entity, its governance is unbalanced; we made an effort to improve that governance.
Desconhecido
to increase the representation of emerging countries in the Fund, but that effort was only partially successful.
And there ends up being an imposition of an agenda that aligns with the interests of those countries, you see?
Desconhecido
Yes, and it's mixed — the International Monetary Fund is both a technical and a political entity, and it's not uncommon for it to be used to advance the bilateral agendas of the dominant countries.
Desconhecido
Hence the reluctance of common opinion, what you called common opinion, regarding the Fund, is justified.
Desconhecido
Because in the process of negotiating an agreement with the Fund, pure influences are frequently present as well.
That is, it is very important not to owe the Fund, because that can represent a very large loss of sovereignty.
Desconhecido
That is why Brazil made a successful effort to accumulate reserves, which began in 2005, 2006.
Desconhecido
In 2006, more strongly.
Desconhecido
In 2006, more strongly with Manter, when Manter entered the Ministry of Finance.
Desconhecido
And today we have high reserves, which gives Brazil a protection that other countries do not have.
And regarding China?
You later moved to China.
The BRICS Bank is a development of the BRICS themselves, that group of developing countries that have robust economies, so to speak.
And they not only tried to coordinate, but are trying to create mechanisms that are not exactly those inherited from the post‑war period, such as the well‑known multilateral organizations, the World Bank, the IMF.
Trying to create a pole to ensure an external counterbalance, so to speak.
You tried to achieve a balance from within, and now a balance from the outside is being attempted.
Desconhecido
Exactly.
Will that... Will that have any traction?
Do you think it will gain momentum?
Or does the fact that Brazil is in this situation of ambiguity harm the development of these ideas?
It does.
AI classification from the transcript of a public video. See the Methodology