Brazil-Politics and the worsening Economy

From the Wall Street Journal today!

President Dilma Rousseff is trying to salvage her Brazilian presidency as things go from bad to worse amid the Petroleo Brasileiro SA corruption scandal(Petrobras*), John Lyons and Paulo Trevisani report. Opposition lawmakers in Latin America’s biggest economy are considering trying to impeach her, either as an accessory to the corruption or for crimes of “irresponsibility” with finances, and a poll found 63% of Brazilians think Congress should open impeachment proceedings.

On top of that, Petrobras has announced a $17 billion charge related to embezzlement, and a senior Petrobras executive testified that kickbacks went to the 2010 campaign of Ms. Rousseff, who was Petrobras chairwoman from 2003 to 2010. And the economy is entering what may be its worst recession in 25 years. “There is a process of economic, social and moral collapse under way,”

*Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in the Southern Hemisphere by market capitalization and the largest in Latin America and the epicenter of the Political scandal now enveloping the Presidency of Rousseff.
In September 2010, Petrobras conducted the largest share sale in history, when US$72.8 billion worth of shares in the company were sold... Upon the sale, Petrobras immediately became the fourth-largest company in the world measured by market capitalization.
In 2008, Petrobras surpassed Microsoft, making it the third largest in the Americas by market value