, Columnist
Brazil Needs to Look Beyond Scandal
Reform is the only way to clean up government.
Who can work up the energy to protest anymore?
Photographer: Gustavo Gomes/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
It's hard to catch a breath in Brazil. Just the other day President Michel Temer dodged a brick, surviving potentially job-ending charges in electoral court that he'd won his mandate with dirty campaign money. Political bulls promptly declared Temer a survivor who would not only salvage vital political and economic reforms but also tough out his beleaguered presidency.
But in a country where two of the last four democratically elected leaders have been ousted in disgrace, and some of the highest-ranking public officials are currently under investigation, shorting political scandals is a fool's trade.