Chapter CXXXVIII - The road to success
Chapter CXXXVIII - The road to success
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With the crash of the American economy and the subsequent failure of multiple banks, many companies around the world also started failing, mostly as a result of the interconnection between world economies following the end of the Cold War. Thus, it didn’t take long for multiple big names in Brazilian industry to begin asking for help from the government. Seizing this opportunity, the government began offering financial support for some key pillars of Brazilian industry, but in exchange the government would be able to buy plenty of shares in these companies, as well as gain guarantees that much of the heavy industry wouldn’t be leaving the country for cheaper nations. Now, I don’t need to tell you that this measure was extremely controversial , especially amongst the opposition. However, given that much of parliament was in NLC’s hands, the P-3 had no chance of succeeding. Thereby, an appeal was made to the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the government buying shares in a company. But to the P-3’s dismay, the court eventually sided with Pérez and his economical nationalist agenda. Now emboldened with the SC’s ruling, the Perez administration began using their newly acquired shares, as well as dominance over the Brazilian parliament to pursue an ‘anti-business’ agenda. Because, basically, the NLC viewed the banks and other financial institutions as being too reckless with other people’s money. To counter this, the government passed the Lei Limpeza do Templo, in homage to the biblical event of Jesus expelling the merchants from the Temple, which resulted in the banks financial independence being slightly stripped by the government. In the end, many of the more radical members of the coalition felt that the law didn’t go far enough, but for now it was a good start, according to the NLC.
Next, the Pérez administration also sought to slightly change the Brazilian economy. Namely, the government opted to increase investment to Brazil’s high-tech industry, as they predicted that, no matter how much they stimulated the local heavy industry, there would always face threats from industry in cheap 3rd world nations. Thereby, an edge in technology was needed if the Brazilian economy was to maintain their position as the 2nd largest. Most notably, ever since the end of the pandemic, computer technology began rapidly improving in all fields. Thereby, the government began handing tax breaks and other incentives for Computer manufactures to increase production and innovation. Most crucial of it all however, would be the Brazilian manufacturing chips for electronic devices, as Brazilian companies began actually surpassing foreign designs in quality and prices. In the end, the most important of all the companies for this develop was the recently created Eletrônicos Fusaro, created by Brazilian inventor, Frederico Fusaro, which soon began making new models like the “Charged-coupled device”. But not only was Brazil developing technologically, but there soon was widespread adoption of new technologies, especially by the government, which soon allowed for more efficient bureaucracy and more accurate accounts. Not only that, but Brazil soon began experimenting with another field, robotics. As previously, that field had been dominated by Japanese companies, but now that many of them were financially shaken by the American crash and the stagnation of Japan, Brazilian companies began venturing into the wide areas of knowledge in robotics.
But not only was Brazil securing itself through technological development and economic reforms. To truly be able to assert themselves in the pillar of the great nations of the 21st century, Brazil also needed to expand their influence abroad. However, unlike the P-3, the NLC had little interest in shows of force and the use of military might. Instead, Brazil was to expand culturally and commercially to other corners of the globe. Because, previously, this Brazilian sphere of influence had been limited to South America and the Lusophone world. But now, the Pérez administration, as well as other private groups, began making headway into more of sub Saharan Africa, southern Europe and Southeast Asia. Namely, the arranging of trade deals and mutual investments between said nations. As such, Brazilian exports and imports began diversifying more and more, as nations that sought to modernize and were usually antagonistic to American influence, began instead buying Brazilian technology and using Brazilian loans. Safe to say, many lawmakers in Washington were none too happy. But considering the current economic fallout the US was going through, there was little they could do. Not only that, but Brazil was also an important American trade partner and more often than not was willing to support Washington in its foreign ventures and diplomatic clashes, though they did prefer to stay neutral. Either way, for now the eagle wouldn’t mind the Jaguar, though one nation that did mind was China. Because, especially after the Macau incident, became ever weary of Brazilian expansion. But now that Brazil was developing ties with Southeast Asian states like Malaysia and Vietnam, China had enough and began hatching counter measures.
However, said measures would ‘t come into fruition until the next year. But as the year of 2012 still raged on, Pérez had more to do. Most important of which were some legislations regarding worker’s rights he longed to pass but couldn’t. Until now that is. Now, Pérez managed to get a new bill approved through Congress the Lei do 14°, which created a new bonus salary for workers, similarly to the 13th, but instead of being given by the end of the year, the 14th would be paid in the end of June. Not only that, but the Brazilian parliament also passed through Lei da Reforma Sindical, which game more power to Trade Unions when negotiating with employers. Lastly but not least, the government also got the Lei Guilherme Leite passed. Said law, tightened Brazilian immigration requirements, as well as allocated more funding for the deportation of immigrants. All of these laws were passed between July of 2012 and Dece,her of 2012. And let me tell you, a lot of people were pissed about it. Liberals were pissed of further government meddling in the economy, while progressives were furious about the new immigrations laws. Hispanic people residing in Brazil in particular were very angry with the new restrictions, as many of them had families back in their countries they would like to bring to Brazil. That is why, during months of December and January, large scale protests gripped the streets of major Brazilian cities. However, given that the government was finally secured and the most turbulent parts of the early Pérez administration were behind him, Pérez paid no attention whatsoever to the protests. It also didn’t help that media coverage was quite low and the protesters message was largely ignored. In the end, Pérez rested easy, for his vision for Brazil was about to come into fruition.
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