Economistas brasileiros, inflação, investimento e mídia: Entrevistas com diferentes escolas de pensamento

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the differences in positioning of Brazilian economists about important topics of current national economic scenario: 1. the use of interest rates to control inflation and growth, and 2. the rate of investment/savings and consumption. And also show opinions about the quality of economic journalism in Brazil. Were selected representative economists of orthodox school (Roberto Luis Troster and Edmar Lisboa Bacha) and heteredox school (Antonio Correa de Lacerda and Yoshiaki Nakano). Were made long semi-structured interviews with each of them, which showed that the orthodox are in favor of a rigid use of traditional monetary policy rules, criticize the state interference (social or directed credit) and that the public saving should be increased with cuts in current expenditure of the government and population consumption. In contrast, the heteredox are favor of alternatives for controlling inflation in monetary policy, are radically opposed to the use of government bonds Selic post fixed, position themselves in favor of state interference made in the Central Bank, has reservations about the lack of control on current expenditure of the government, defending public saving as fiscal target and that only persistent growth increases saving. In reviews of economic journalism, economists criticize the training and knowledge of journalists and an excess of the financial market subject in news coverage