The bailout of banks during the crisis highlights the abysmal gap between the poor and the rich.

By Denise Assis, for the Journalists for Democracy 

When all this is over – because it will be – and the doors open for everyone to see and embrace each other, we will find a different "outside." One sector, however, will remain exactly the same, because it is immutable. We are talking about the financial sector. The business of banks, of big businessmen. 

Sometimes I wonder in which steel mill these steel magnates were forged, those who don't bend before the suffering of others. No. On the contrary. They profit from it.

In 2019, the accumulated profit of the four largest banks in the country with shares traded on the Stock Exchange, namely: Bradesco, Itaú Unibanco, Santander and Banco do Brasil, was R$ 59,7 billion, the highest for the period at least since 2006. Bankers hadn't profited so much since 2015. Even in that year, the total was R$ 57,7 billion, not reaching the profit obtained last year. The increase was 15%, with values ​​already adjusted for inflation.

Still, as soon as they heard the sneeze of the first person infected with the coronavirus, there they were, in line at Guedes's office, obtaining from the Central Bank a reduction in the reserve requirement rate on term deposits, from 25% to 17%. According to the minister, the measure is temporary and aims to increase the liquidity of the National Financial System. At this point, it's necessary to pause and ask: why do these gentlemen want so much liquidity? Does this mean that with all the profits they make, they still lack capital? Why? Don't they know how to manage their businesses? Or are their appetites bigger than the market's? Or is it a combination of both?

And ask them if the funds they received to lend to businesses during the crisis are being passed on to small and medium-sized business owners so they can keep their employees?... No. Of course not. And do you know why? Because they increased the collateral requirements for the loans. They can't afford to lose a cent when thousands are losing their lives. Fathers, mothers, wives, children, they are all dying, but they believe that illness "is something that only affects the poor." They think they won't be affected, except in their wallets. And they tremble. 

They're well-fed, they have health insurance... Just watch. The virus didn't spare even Boris Johnson. Someone needs to tell these gentlemen that this time, the coronavirus isn't discriminatory. It gets one, it gets them all.

For the agribusiness sector, the one that supported the genocidal president from the very beginning, R$ 88 billion was allocated to be disbursed by public banks (that is, with more favorable conditions than those of the private network). And R$ 30 billion is available for the purchase of loan portfolios from small and medium-sized banks. Do you know what this means? That the government will take over the non-performing loan portfolios of these banks, freeing their owners from any losses. Can you imagine being in trouble because you maxed out your credit card, racked up debt, and then some rich uncle comes along and says: 'Don't worry. This month your expenses are on me?' A dream, isn't it?

The impoverished population, informal workers, and the self-employed are still in the registration queue, undergoing profile analyses and requests for paperwork they lack. The government is requiring the CPF (Brazilian taxpayer ID) of each child so that mothers – heads of household – can receive the R$ 1.200,00 aid. 

The insensitivity is so great that they fail to consider that many children remain nonexistent to the State because mothers don't know how to register them, or fear having to pay something, they don't even go to the registry office. Meanwhile, banks received an injection of R$ 1,2 trillion as aid to face the crisis. Take a calculator and do your own calculations of the difference between one number and the other. This is the abyss between the single mother, without a partner, and the banker and his figures. This is called "social inequality." A chasm.

And to further aggravate this gap between the money disbursed to the poor and that directed to bankers, there is also the reduction in the role of public banks. These are the very banks that could help small, medium, and large businesses in better conditions than the private sector – which acts as if the world were still spinning at the same pace as before the pandemic.

In a recent article in Folha de São Paulo, Arthur Koblitz, president of the BNDES Employees' Foundation Association, thoroughly analyzed the issue, making the following analogy: “(...) The measures presented by the current BNDES board, so far, are clearly insufficient and do not address the crisis. (...) It's as if 'the firefighters announced that among their measures would be the transfer of personnel and vehicles, for example, to the police. Everyone would ask, but isn't it a fire?'"