From the 1950s until the end of the 1970s, the state played an active role in
structuring and consolidating the industrial sector in Brazil. However, the high degree and
permanent nature of protection for the domestic market, together with insufficient scientific
and technological development, produced a largely inefficient, technologically backward
and internationally uncompetitive industry. It was able to sell abroad because the system of
promotion for exports of manufactures offset the anti-export bias of the protection system.
These problems were aggravated in the 1980s, when the state not only stopped orienting
industrial development but actually began retarding it.

JEL Classification: L52; H11.

The objective of this article is to formulate a representation of the price formation
process which is satisfactorily general, and independent of the special characteristics
propitiated by an occasional situation of low instability, as is implicit in the particular
representation synthesized in the rule of a fixed mark-up over direct costs. First of all,
the article presents a synthesis of the main arguments presented by post-Keynesians on
what the author calls the strategic determination of desired mark-ups. He then set out to
recuperate the concept of user costs developed by Keynes and which, in his opinion, is
well-suited for representing the expectational determination of desired mark-ups. Finally,
the author proposes an analytical integration of these two determinations, given a set of market and economic structures. This integration is summarized in a general formula for
desired mark-ups.

JEL Classification: D43.

This essay suggests that the external debt of the Latin-American countries should
be considered as a form of conflict. This means that the confrontation of relative powers
has to be acknowledged. As a conflict, it turns into a process in which the relations of creditors
and debtors develop through the establishment of different strategies. Conventional
treatment · of external indebtedness takes it as a problem and searches for its solution. As
such, its nature tends ultimately to be considered as a market phenomenon. Technical and
administrative measures are then proposed to cope with the “debt crisis •. But in fact, negotiation
becomes the main characteristic of the conflict. A situation of financial deterrence is
then created to prevent a rupture in international financial flows. The unequal power of the
participants fixes the limits of the confrontation as well as the incentives for cooperation.

JEL Classification: H63; F34.

This paper compares the Cruzado Plan with the Bresser Plan. Both were price
freezes based on the theory of inertial inflation. However, while the Cruzado Plan intended
to end with inflation, the Bresser Plan was an emergency plan aimed to cope with the deep
financial and economic crisis left by the failure of the Cruzado. It achieved this objective. As to
inflation, the authors of the plan expected that the rate of inflation would be back to around
10 percent in December 1987; the actual rate of inflation in this month was 14 percent.

JEL Classification: E31; E52.

Democratic regimes have substituted repressive political regimes in Latin America.
They are now confronting extremely serious problems: social ínequality, financial crisis,
both apparently without solution. The viability of increasing the strength of democracy is
the first subject of this paper. The second subject relates to the degree of state intervention
under these conditions. It argues that a reduction and a modification of the state structure
are taking place. The financial crisis tends to accelerate this process. These two subjects,
basis and fragility of democracy and the limits of the state intervention, are analysed in the
light of the “derivation theory”.

JEL Classification: P16; P10; H10.

on this paper, the author analyses the possibility of creation (and the reasons for
the defeat of the proposal) of free trade zones in Brazil, with special attention to the effect of
such zones in the balance of payments.

JEL Classification: F13.

This is a compilation of documents relating to the negotiation of Brazil’s external
debt in September 1987.

JEL Classification: H63; F34.

This is a copy of the ninth intention letter sent by the government of Brazil to
the IMF, in the midst of the negotiations of its external debt.

JEL Classification: H63; F34.

This is a proposal by the American Express to a global solution for the external
debt crisis published in 1988.

JEL Classification: H63; F34.