Zombies haunt the US and alarm Brazil.

247 – The crackdown ordered over the weekend by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg against the Occupy Wall Street movement, which resulted in the arrest of 700 people, was to no avail. On Monday, the small street that symbolizes the financial heart of the United States – and also of global capitalism – was taken over by hundreds of people dressed as zombies. With frightening makeup, they protested against the crisis caused by Wall Street bankers and gained the support of intellectuals such as Salman Rushdie and Noam Chomsky.

To further escalate tensions in the United States, protests have broken through the boundaries of Wall Street. According to a report in The New York Times, demonstrations are also taking to the streets of cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. In other words, from coast to coast, the United States is in turmoil. And on this day of zombies, investors suffered. The Dow Jones index fell 2,36%, while the Nasdaq, which focuses on technology companies, retreated 3,29%. On the Bovespa, which returned to 50 points, the drop was 2,93%.

In Brazil, the Central Bank had to intervene to prevent the dollar from soaring. When the American currency reached R$ 1,91, the Central Bank sold dollars, causing the American currency to close at R$ 1,89. Although a high dollar complicates the fight against inflation, Mantega minimized its effects. "There is no ideal dollar for a country with a floating exchange rate; there are overvalued and undervalued dollars. The real had been overvalued for a while. I remember that before we took the derivatives measures, the exchange rate was at R$ 1,53, and if we had let it, it would have gone below R$ 1,50. Imagine what would have happened to industry with the exchange rate at R$ 1,40, R$ 1,35. We reversed it, and of course, this didn't happen only because of the measures we took," he said, adding that among these actions were the adoption of the IOF tax in the dollar futures market and the reduction of the Selic rate by the Central Bank.

Payroll

Mantega also stated that the payroll tax exemption, tested in four sectors of the economy, could be expanded. "The payroll tax exemption for four sectors is experimental, but the idea is to generalize it in the future," he said. Mantega was referring to the tax reduction for four productive segments included in the launch of the Plano Brasil Maior (Greater Brazil Plan): clothing, footwear, furniture, and software. The Brasil Maior program, a set of industrial policies, was announced on August 2nd.

The Finance Minister stressed, however, that the expansion of tax breaks for productive sectors should be adopted by the government gradually. A week after the launch of the Plano Brasil Maior (Greater Brazil Plan), the Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Fernando Pimentel, said in São Paulo that this year such a tax reduction program would be restricted to the first four sectors. "We need to analyze the measures and their unfolding carefully to assess what the next steps will be. There should be no other sectors included in 2011," Pimentel stated at the time.