The Brazilian economy has been suffering from a double disease in the last few decades: a combination of anemia in productivity increases and an obesity of the public sector

In just a few months’ time, the pandemic crisis brought about years of change in the way companies and private and public organizations in all sectors and regions operate. T

The middle-income trap may well characterize the experience of Brazil and most of Latin America since the 1980s. Conversely, South Korea maintained its pace of evolution, reaching a high-income status.

Three areas threaten another economic and social "lost decade" for the region.

We compare rates of economic growth, poverty reduction, governance, and sources of productivity growth in resource-rich and resource-poor countries. We contrast the landscapes during the commodity boom with the current one during the pandemic crisis.

Natural resource-richness is basically a blessing, as stocks of natural wealth are among the factors of production which help determine the output per worker of a country. But it may become a curse, depending on the quality of governance and on the policies adopted to cope with macroeconomic challenges that accompany it.

Some analysts have started to speak of the possibility of a new commodity price ‘super-cycle’ after the downturn since 2011. Although it is always possible to find moments of joint fluctuation, in which commodities remain for a long time above or below their long-term trends, differences among them matter. Copper is King! It is in metals, especially copper, lithium, and rare earth ones, that a strong bullish cycle is most evident.

The “middle-income trap” has become a broad designation trying to capture the many cases of developing countries that succeeded in evolving from low- to middle-levels of per capita income, but then appeared to stall, losing momentum along the route toward the higher income levels of advanced economies. We need to approach middle-income countries as being in a complex transition phase between accumulation and innovation-based economies. Individual middle-income country experiences of falling into a “trap” may be approached as cases of lack of or failing performance in footing the bill in terms of appropriate policies and institutions.