This paper reinforces some ideas, which were expressed in the past quarter of
the century in the document that originated the SUDENE and analyses them accordingly to
the events of the last decades. The conclusions are that the main guidelines (1) the need of a
transformation in the agrarian structure and (2) the priority that should be given to industrialization
as a dynamic element of regional development, both continue to be valid. In relation
to the industrialization process, the necessity of a wide connection between industry
and the local market (which gives to industrialization the character of an instrument of social
homogeneity) is highlighted.

JEL Classification: O10; O13; O14.

This paper shows us that the causes of Latin American indebtedness must be analysed
from two sides. On one side the transformations that took place in the international
financial market and generated an anomalous increase in the supply of credit by international
private banking. On the other side, the economic liberalism that the authoritarian
regimes embraced and their social and political necessities to reward the middle-class supporter
led them to increase their indebtedness much beyond their capabilities of payment.
Considerations are also given to explain why the debtors’ countries have managed to “reschedule”
the existing debt individually and not bargain collectively. Problems and consequences
of a “default” by Latin American countries are also analysed in this paper.

JEL Classification: F34; H63.

This paper analyses the Brazilian external debt negotiations that followed the international
financial system disruption that precipitated the Mexican moratorium. The emphasis
is on Brazil-lMF agreements. We divide the negotiations in two rounds, according to
the external financial needs for 1983 and 1984, respectively. Our main conclusion indicates
that there will be no economic growth prospects for some years ahead if the present negotiation
model is maintained. New conditions, such as longer terms and lower rates of interest,
are basic requirements for solving the Brazilian Balance of Payments problem.

JEL Classification: F34; H63.

As a way out for the indebtedness crisis, the economists of the World Bank and
the IMF have been advocating the outward-looking development thesis. The degree of the
opening of the economy and the dynamics of the foreign trade were promoted to the level of
true indicators of development without concern with the social and ecologic costs of the exports.
The inadequacy of this strategy for the third-world countries, the feasibility of a moratorium,
and the advantages of an introverted growth, mainly in the Brazilian case, are analysed
in this paper. Some obstacles that Brazil will face in the retake of economic growth
are also focused.

JEL Classification: F34; H63.

The purpose of the paper is to trace the essential connections between the work
of Marx and the foundations of capitalist economic dynamics. The main point is that Marx’s
“laws of motion” of the capitalist economy have been thought to be effective at the level of
capital in general, whereas a theory of capitalist economic dynamics as such must lead to
more concrete determinations, which cannot arise unless the level of competition, or the
“plurality of capitals”, is fully taken into account. After a short introduction, the 2nd section
discusses four different notions of competition that can be found in The Capital, underlining
the one concerning the economic laws of motion, whereby every capital seeks to get surplus
profits by means of new methods of production and new products, leading to relative
surplus value production. But competition still emerges here in its general features, which do not suffice to establish a dynamic theory. The 3rd section concludes this paper raising some
basic elements needed to develop such a theory. After a preliminary discussion of the reasons
to dismiss the equilibrium paradigm in a dynamic economy and of the role of time – both
historical and theoretical -, it closes with a reference to the theoretical forms of dynamics: instability,
crisis, trend, and business cycle, where emphasis is put in the last two.

JEL Classification: B51; E11; E32; P11.

In discussing economic growth, an important role is attributed to small industries
which would generate employment and distribute income to the poor urban population.
The real facts have not confirmed this hypothesis, although small production units continue
to represent the majority of industrial and service firms and contribute with a large share of
the GNP, employment, wages, and taxes, in spite of an increasing concentration of capital
and the centralization of economic power in large conglomerates. This apparently contradictory
movement of capital in its process of accumulation and reproduction suggests that
small firms are not condemned to disappear but tend to assume new and different functions,
however, subordinated, dependent, or complementary to large conglomerates, in the process
of capitalist production.

JEL Classification: P12; D40; L11.

After summarizing a model of autonomous or administered inflation presented
in another paper, the authors analyse the Keynesian and monetarist policies of controlling
inflation. Finally, they discuss at length an alternative policy of price stabilization – an administrative
policy – based on price controls and programmed deindexation, associated with
moderate growth of the economy and followed by monetary and fiscal adjustment.

JEL Classification: E31.

The 1980s financial crisis exposed the vulnerability of the international lending
system in place since the 1970s. This article analyses this system, the role of international
commercial banks and the perspectives for the Brazilian economy.

JEL Classification: F34; H63.

With the objectives of providing better understanding of key concepts related to
inflation and clearer policy objectives, this paper builds a model for an overly indexed economy
and how this process does not represent an obstacle to changes in relative prices.

JEL Classification: E31; D47.

An IS-LM orthodox model is used to indicate the perspectives of the stabilization
program in place in Brazil.

JEL Classification: E31; F34; H63.