A recent issue of the Economist dedicated a rather long special feature to Brazil’s economy and what it termed its “dismal” performance over last decade. Among the root causes of the country’s current predicament, the article argued, was the recent governments’ inability to enact adequate neoliberal reform.

The diagnosis from a magazine known as a champion of free-market liberalism, is by no means surprising, but does the analysis hold under scrutiny? In fact, a closer look at the data suggests the opposite conclusions can be drawn. While, indeed, the last decade in Brazil has seen tragic economic decline, this is by no means due to a lack of neoliberal orthodoxy but, rather, an adherence to it.

It is common knowledge that capitalism in Brazil is in crisis. Its effects are dramatic. The last ten years should be seen as yet another “lost decade” for the country, the first having occurred in the 1980s. Worse, the data shows that it was the worst decade in a hundred twenty years. Over the course of the last decade alone, Brazil has experienced two major recessions, the first one from 2014 to 2016, and another beginning in 2020 — and there is no end in sight.