书评：《巴西的巨富》Brazillionaires: The godfathers of modern Brazil. 作者是 Alex Cuadros.

一个国家有多腐敗，也许只要看看首都的人口增長速度和财富即可。巴西的首都巴西利亞是六十年代完全人造的一个城市。可是，由于游说和寻租的需要，这个新首都现在已经有三百多万人。而且，它还是南美洲人均收入最高的城市。

作者住在巴西多年，专门为澎拜资讯公司Bloomberg 研究当地的巨富人群。一个惊人的发现：巴西虽然民不聊生，但是十亿美元以上身价的巨富很多。而且没有一个人与科技有关，绝大部分来自建筑行业：政府基建工程是致富的不二法门。矿业虽然也出了几个巨富，但是他們的財富来得快，消失的也快。

作者发现......

Nikkei Asia Review, 14 July 2017.

The state is adding assets to its portfolio, not selling.

by Joe Zhang...

Four years ago, I was part of a chorus of analysts who predicted that a wave of privatization would soon sweep through China. Our sense was that the pressure of official debt, already then reaching a scarily high level by global and Chinese historical standards, would force local governments to sell off interests in commercial ventures. Simply too much had been borrowed at interest rates of more than 7% to build roads, bridges, office towers and sports stadiums w......

china-grows-equal-opportunity-and-social-mobility-are-fast

SCMP.com,  7 Jul 2017.

阶级斗争要年年讲，月月讲，天天讲。

Joe Zhang considers how his family’s fortunes reflect the changing times in a newly wealthy China. Social mobility, which once enabled the talented and hardworking to make good, is now an unattainable dream for many.

Twice a year, I go from Hong Kong to Jingmen (荊門), in central China’s Hubei ( 湖北 ) province, to visit my parents and other relatives. But my trip last week was depressing as I found most of my cousins and their ch......