BRASIL: Analysis: How Lula Changed "Belindia" To A Democracy.

GUARDIAN/ ANALYSIS and OPINION / Rodrigo Nunes:
       "In the 1970s, economist Edmar Bacha popularised the term "Belindia" as a description of Brazil: a little bit of Belgium and a lot of India, the country was very rich for some and very poor for most.
       The self-image of the inhabitants of the Brazilian "Belgium" consists in seeing both sides of the coin without their necessary connection. For them, the true Brazil is theirs – white, well off, well educated. The lawless "India" outside the gates not only exists on its own account, without any causal relation with the wealth inside, but is also what drags the country down: were it not for the plebe, so the thinking goes, there would be only Belgium."

BRASIL: How Fake Money Saved The Nation From Inflation Psychology.

NPR/ Transcript of Planet Money Report/ Audio is 7:50/ A fascinating report/

Ever wonder what happened to Brasil's cruzeiros? I do. I still have more than 3,000 of them from living in Rio and elsewhere in Brasil in 1985.
Now, Planet Money's Chana Joffe-Walt reports on how four grad students saved Brasil's inflation obsessed populace in 1990 and helped kill the cruzeiro and introduce the REAL.
This is the first time I have ever seen this story told in the English language media.