Questões de Concurso

Happy new year
Source: www.economist.com
Jul 2nd 2009 (Adapted)

    The mantra in Washington, DC is simple: spend billions now, pay later. Congress has been crafting ambitious plans for energy, health care and transport. But the mood in state capitals has been different. Forty-six states had a deadline of June 0th to pass their budgets. Just as important, those budgets had to be balanced. With the sole exemption of Vermont, America´s state governments, unlike the federal one, are not allowed to run deficits. June was an agonizing
month.
    On the morning of July 1st, the first day of the new fiscal year for most states, taxpayers had reason to be glum. Connecticut, North Carolina and Ohio had passed temporary extensions. California, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Illinois did not have a balanced budget as required.Most states that did pass budgets imposed painful cuts, higher taxes and fees on everything from pesticides in Minnesota to hunting licences in Maine.
    Matters would be worse if it were not for Washington´s stimulus package, which provides more than $135 billion to support state budgets. Most money, $87 billion, is for Medicaid, the government´s health-care programme for the poor. A further $48 billion created a State Fiscal Stabilisation Fund, mostly for schools and universities.

Economic recovery: the case of the BRICs
Source: www.economist.com
June 18th 2009 (Adapted)

    According to the IMF´s Mr Felman, in early 2008 all the contribution of investment to growth came from non-state-owned enterprises, mostly the private sector; since December 2008, more than half has come from state-owned enterprises. Something similar is happening in Brazil. Between last September and this January credit from foreign-owned and domestic
private banks rose by 3%; credit from public banks rose by 14%. The beneficiaries seem to be large firms, where loans are growing four times as quickly as at small ones.
    It is not clear how far, in the long run, the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be affected by a big rise in the size of the government and large state-owned firms. But that rise is probably inevitable. China and, to a lesser extent, Brazil and India, benefited hugely from America´s appetite for imports in 2000-08. That appetite has fallen and is likely to remain low for years, as American consumers adjust their spending and savings habits. The rise may also be difficult to reverse: the experience of the West has been that the public sector expands relentlessly until it reaches between 40% and 50% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). But if the BRICs cannot export their way out of recession, the expansion of government is the main alternative to the slump being endured in those other big capital exporters.

Economic recovery: the case of the BRICs
Source: www.economist.com
June 18th 2009 (Adapted)

    According to the IMF´s Mr Felman, in early 2008 all the contribution of investment to growth came from non-state-owned enterprises, mostly the private sector; since December 2008, more than half has come from state-owned enterprises. Something similar is happening in Brazil. Between last September and this January credit from foreign-owned and domestic
private banks rose by 3%; credit from public banks rose by 14%. The beneficiaries seem to be large firms, where loans are growing four times as quickly as at small ones.
    It is not clear how far, in the long run, the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be affected by a big rise in the size of the government and large state-owned firms. But that rise is probably inevitable. China and, to a lesser extent, Brazil and India, benefited hugely from America´s appetite for imports in 2000-08. That appetite has fallen and is likely to remain low for years, as American consumers adjust their spending and savings habits. The rise may also be difficult to reverse: the experience of the West has been that the public sector expands relentlessly until it reaches between 40% and 50% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). But if the BRICs cannot export their way out of recession, the expansion of government is the main alternative to the slump being endured in those other big capital exporters.

Economic recovery: the case of the BRICs
Source: www.economist.com
June 18th 2009 (Adapted)

    According to the IMF´s Mr Felman, in early 2008 all the contribution of investment to growth came from non-state-owned enterprises, mostly the private sector; since December 2008, more than half has come from state-owned enterprises. Something similar is happening in Brazil. Between last September and this January credit from foreign-owned and domestic
private banks rose by 3%; credit from public banks rose by 14%. The beneficiaries seem to be large firms, where loans are growing four times as quickly as at small ones.
    It is not clear how far, in the long run, the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be affected by a big rise in the size of the government and large state-owned firms. But that rise is probably inevitable. China and, to a lesser extent, Brazil and India, benefited hugely from America´s appetite for imports in 2000-08. That appetite has fallen and is likely to remain low for years, as American consumers adjust their spending and savings habits. The rise may also be difficult to reverse: the experience of the West has been that the public sector expands relentlessly until it reaches between 40% and 50% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). But if the BRICs cannot export their way out of recession, the expansion of government is the main alternative to the slump being endured in those other big capital exporters.

Faith-based politics
Source: Newsweek Magazine (Adapted)
May 25th 2009

Tony Blair, Britain´s longest-serving Labour Prime Minister, left office in 2007 as a relatively young man of 54. At his office in London, Blair spoke to NEWSWEEK´s Stryker McGuire. Excerpts:

Question 1: There´s much evidence that religious beliefs have been a force for evil in the world. How do you persuade people to put faith in faith? Many people do see faith as a source of division and conflict. There is another side that the world of faith isn´t often good enough at putting forward – which is about compassion, solidarity, social justice.

Question 2: How do you think President Barack Obama is doing as a leader and healer on the world scene? He´s created a situation where there is a possibility of a completely different form of engagement with the world of Islam and with the outside world. The single most important thing for him is that his decision to reach out is answered by the rest of the world by a decision to reach back. As I keep saying to people, he doesn´t want cheerleaders; he wants partners. You know, he doesn´t want people to tell him how great he is; he´s perfectly well aware of the transient nature of all that fluff, as it were, around the new president and the first hundred days. He´s trying to change the world in partnership, and he needs partners to do it.