Never waste a good crisis? Someone should tell Jair Bolsonaro

The Brazilian economy took a pounding on Monday morning, with benchmark stock index Ibovespa tanking 10 percent and triggering a circuit breaker, before falling further to close out the day at 86,067 points—down 12.16 percent. The U.S. Dollar hit highs of BRL 4.79 against the Brazilian Real, now hovering around BRL 4.72. And to compound this perfect storm of instability, President Jair Bolsonaro has endorsed calls for street protests this Sunday, organized by groups that openly advocate for the closure of Congress and the Supreme Court.

The financial plunge around the world can be credited to two factors: Saudi Arabia’s slashing of oil prices to around USD 30.00 a barrel, and the continued widespread panic over the Covid-19 outbreak. Such a crash is felt particularly hard in Brazil, which has an economy that is over-reliant on global trends and commodity prices.

Amid the storm, however, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes pleaded for calm, saying that he treats the crisis with “absolute serenity.” He went on to suggest that Brazil is moving in the opposite direction to other markets around the world and that the country is in “full recovery”—an opinion which was hard to stomach for local economists, looking on agape as Brazil’s financial indicators plummeted.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Rodrigo Maia—tweeting on Sunday evening as analysts warned of an incoming crash—declared that “the crisis could be an opportunity [for the Executive...