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twice the national average. But it still has the country’s worst rate of recidivism, with 70% of people who leave prison ending up back in it, compared with 40% in America as a whole. The new prisons built in the 1990s to help accommodate the prisoners serving these tougher sentences have also helped contribute to the state’s fiscal crisis. Last month’s desperate deal between the governor and the legislature to balance the budget includes cuts of $1.2 billion from prisons, but many Republicans are objecting to the implication that 27,000 prisoners will have to be released to make these savings. For the time being, California’s prisoners remain crammed together—with predictable results. Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved. -35-
Brazil's foreign policy Lula and his squabbling friends Aug 13th 2009 | BRASÍLIA From The Economist print edition A bold Brazilian attempt to integrate South America has run into difficulty. Critics at home say Brazil should put national interest over leftist ideology Illustration by David Simonds WHEN the leaders of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUL in Portuguese), a 12-country group inspired by Brazil, met in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, on August 10th, there was little spirit of union. Their meeting followed a row between Venezuela and Colombia, whose president, Álvaro Uribe, did not attend, in part because Ecuador broke off diplomatic relations with his country last year. Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, backed by his allies, Bolivia and Ecuador, wanted to condemn Colombia for granting facilities at seven military bases to the United States, which is helping it battle guerrillas and drug-traffickers. “Winds of war are blowing,” he thundered. Four countries, including Chile and Peru, backed Colombia. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, tried to damp down the dispute, suggesting that the group meet both Barack Obama and Mr Uribe to seek reassurances about the use of the bases. But then Mr Chávez launched a diatribe against Colombia and Mr Obama. Lula cut short his visit to Ecuador and headed home, giving warning that UNASUL could “cease to be an integration process, becoming just a group of friends.” If only. This fiasco provides fuel for both sides in a long-running debate in Brazil about the foreign policy of the Lula government. The critics, who include several senior former diplomats, accuse the government of placing ideology above Brazil’s national interest—especially in policy towards South America. Lula’s predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, sought to boost trade and other ties with the United States and Europe. On taking office in 2003, Lula placed new stress on south-south ties. Brazil has doubled the number of its embassies in Africa, to 30, and joined or set up a clutch of new clubs. These include IBSA, with India and South Africa, of which Itamaraty, the foreign ministry, is especially proud. As evidence that this policy has borne fruit, Celso Amorim, the foreign minister, points out that most of Brazil’s trade is now with developing countries, thus anticipating Mr Obama’s advice that the world should not rely on the United States as consumer of last resort. He concedes that Brazil does not agree with the other big emerging powers on everything, but they do share an interest in trying to change the way that -36-
Page 2 and 3: Search Requires subscription Econom
Page 4 and 5: Politics this week Aug 13th 2009 Fr
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Page 12 and 13: democratic region. But Brazil’s l
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Their aim is more modest. It was sp
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At a review conference next year, s
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with state aid. In an average year
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Mauro Cutrufo, Rome’s head of tou
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Online auctions Mind the pennies Au
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hire in anticipation; they will wai
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Face value Top of his game Aug 13th
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Emerging Asian economies On the reb
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y 70%. One reason why Asia’s emer
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industries with subsidies and under
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Of the three firms, AIG represents
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Assessing quantitative easing Muzzl
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All these rules failed and the sche
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Retail bonds in Europe Small fry wa
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politicians still seem fixated by e
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In an influential early example of
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Thinking space Another way to encou
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Detecting habitable new worlds The
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The history of science Kepler's wor
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Engels (whose name resembles the wo
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prose, having gone from Uighur to G
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anks to hold more capital, the flow
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Football and economics Game for gee
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There are two intellectual bugbears
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she continued to lurk, roiling the
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Output, prices and jobs Aug 13th 20
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The Economist commodity-price index
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Trade, exchange rates, budget balan
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Markets Aug 13th 2009 From The Econ
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Office vacancy rates Aug 13th 2009
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