Decifra-me ou te devoro! As finanças e a sociedade brasileira

Abstract

The article argues for the existence of a financial mode of domination in Brazilian society at the start of the 21st century. In support of this claim, it provides a chronology of the recent transformations in Brazilian economic culture and draws evidence from various spheres: (i) on the success of the rhetoric justifying the continuance of high interest rates in the country, supposedly a response to the disorganization of Brazilian society, (ii) on the propagation of corporate governance, increasingly advocated as the ideal method for managing and evaluating 'modern' organizations; (iii) on the logic adopted by the explicit critique of financial domination, which attempts to personify the phenomenon in the form of 'exemplary' individuals. In all three cases, the pre-eminence of the arguments sustaining the financial viewpoint - seen as positive within the ideological framework of the proposed chronology - are contrasted with the difficulties faced by its critique, associated with its negative poles.