Brazil and the Fortune 500 List

 It's like, duh, Brazil totally belongs in the squad of these four lit AF developing economies. Although China is like, totally the major recipient of FDI, Brazil has shown mad growth through the last two decades and in 2010 Brazil was one of the world’s fastest growing economies (Lopez, 2011). Lit, right? Brazil has like totally flexed its reach beyond South American borders to like level up its connections with the other BRICs and other developing countries. An example of this is "The India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum", more commonly known as IBSA, which is a lit dialogue forum created in Brasilia in 2003 under the leadership of President Lula (Roett, 2010:133).

OMG, like the forums home page says

"IBSA is lit af! It's all about three emerging countries, three multiethnic and multicultural democracies, who are totally down to contribute to building a new international vibe, to come together and speak up on global issues, and to strengthen their connections in different areas." IBSA also be down to vibe with concrete projects of cooperation and partnership with less developed countries” (IBSA). According to Roett (2010), IBSA ain't really seen as a big international player yet, but the forum shows that Brazil, India, and South Africa are starting to take charge and work together on the global stage. The tea that these countries are flexin' and takin' a common vibe on international conflicts shows that the South is startin' to approach global problems, ya feel me? (Roett, 2010:133). The yearly summits of the forum have been all about flexing those trade relations, backing democracy and human rights, spreading peace and development vibes. The development of a convo between IBSA and the European Union has been hella important. The vibe in this relationship is for India, Brazil and South Africa to flex as a counterweight to the industrial countries by using soft balancing power instead of trying to be a rival (Roett, 2010:134). Russia is like totally down to do more business with Brazil, ya know?  OMG, like the first try by the Collor administration in 1990 to flex on trade more was a total flop. No one was vibing with it and it crashed and burned real quick. In 1994, when the Real Plan was dropped, foreign investment went through the roof. Macroeconomic vibes and a hella stable financial system totally pulled in foreign investors, ya know? As mentioned, the then prez Cardoso totally flexed and opened up the economy, like, whoa!

Prez Medvedev was like, "Yo, in '08, I'm all about that trade game, fam."

Brazil and Russia would totally flex and go from a lowkey $5 million in 2007, and he also spilled the tea about plans to squad up and slay the game "in fighting the crisis and creating a new global financial architecture." (BBC, 2008-­‐Russia and Brazil heads push ties), (Roett, 2010:134). The relationship between China and Brazil is like, hella important, you know? These two countries have been BFFs since the mid-1990s, and since the beginning of the 2000s, the leaders have been meeting up on the reg. Brazilian exports to China have like totally blown up and in the spring of 2009, China became Brazils biggest trading partner for the first time, totally kicking the U.S. to the curb. Even tho these countries r grouped under the same banner, so much has happened since the Goldman Sachs report dropped in 2001. The vibes in these countries have always been hella different when it comes to their political scene, how big their markets are, and how their economies are flexing. But like, these countries are gonna be major players in the world economy in the future, ya know? Brazil's economy is like, the biggest in all of Latin America with a crazy GDP of USD 2.1 trillion in 2010 (Brazil Country Brief). It's like, major flexin'! Yo, like, this country has been straight up killing it with the economic growth, dope macroeconomic policies, and a lit middle class. They're totally slaying as a top destination for foreign investment and making moves in the global commerce game. These factors make the economy, like, one of the world's most lit and promising forces among emerging markets. Brazil is like, totally flexin' as the third-most-attractive country for future FDI, after China and India (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2010).

Econ Analysis

During the 80s, FDI was like, not high at all, but hella stable. At this time Brazil was, like, a developing country and a hella protected market protected by all sorts of trade barriers. This was like the main vibe that totally attracted the flows of FDI to Brazil, you know? Since the start, foreign investments were like all about that market-seeking vibe, ya know? The investment's profitability was totally guaranteed by the protectionist trade policy, no cap. There were mad restrictions on the activity of foreign companies in sectors that provide finance and insurance services and there were also state monopolies in the oil and gas sectors and in telecommunications and postal services, like, totally rule the game, ya know? It wasn't until the 90s that the liberalizing reforms were introduced, ya know? (Veiga, 2004). During the 90s, Brazil and the other Latin American countries totally switched up their trade and development game, going from the old-school "import substitution industrialization" policies of the 60s and 70s to more "export-oriented" trade vibes. The Brazilian development policy went from being all about protecting the economy from international trade drama to being all about getting in on that global economy action through more trade, ya know? (Shaffer, Sanchez and Rosenberg, 2008). OMG, like check out the chart below! There was this majorly lit trend of foreign investment until the early 90’s. FDI was not as lit as it came to be in the later decade, obvi that was cuz Brazil wasn't yet that open to trade as it came to be later in the globalization process.