Brazil Seeks Its Role in the World

Earlier this week, Dilma Rousseff made the same trip that several thousand Brazilians have become addicted to: a trip to the United States. Unlike Rousseff, most of those Brazilians are on a historically unique shopping spree. Even with the U.S. dollar growing a bit more expensive in the last few weeks, for ordinary Brazilian citizens it is still cheaper to pay for an airline ticket to Miami, stay in a hotel and buy baby clothes, men shoes and women cosmetics—not to mention electronics or durable consumer goods—than it is to acquire these same items at home. The numbers of Brazilians having a good time in the United States is impressive to the point that the U.S. government has begun facilitating the visa issuing procedures—news which has been celebrated by the crowds waiting to be interviewed by overworked U.S. consular officials in São Paulo, Rio and elsewhere in Brazil.