Financial markets appear more than happy to overlook the authoritarian impulses and violent promises of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, hoping he will deliver decisive, pro-business economic policies. In a giddy investor call on Thursday, Timothy Hassinger, chief executive officer of Lindsay Corp., the Nebraska-based farming equipment manufacturer, referred to the far-right politician as “considered strongly as pro-ag,” calling his likely election victory a “bullish opportunity for us.” Bolsonaro surprised political observers with a strong 46 percent showing in the first round of the country’s election, and is expected to easily defeat Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad in an October 28 runoff vote. Many human rights advocates are alarmed by Bolsonaro’s repeated praise for Brazil’s military dictatorship and a platform calling for a more repressive approach to the country’s crime and social problems, which includes reintroducing the death penalty and making it harder to investigate and prosecute cops who kill in the line of duty. But the global financial community is pleased by his strong performance, heartened by his choice of Paulo Guedes as his chief economic adviser. A right-wing, University of Chicago-trained banker, Guedes would take charge of finance, planning, trade, and other domestic policies. Bolsonaro’s economic record in the Brazilian Congress was more moderate, and he has been criticized for his lack of economic literacy, but his choice of Guedes has been seen as a signal that he will embrace the neoliberal consensus that investors have been pressuring Brazil to execute. Guedes has promised to sell off state assets, cut the public pension system, revise the tax code, and deregulate the economy. Another Bolsonaro adviser, Nabhan Garcia, told Reuters that the administration would slash fines for farmers who violate environmental rules in sensitive areas like the Amazon. Last year, The Intercept covered a campaign event in Deerfield Beach, Florida, at which Bolsonaro told the crowd, “The press says I do not understand the economy. Look, as far as I know, Ronald Reagan didn’t either, and he was one of the best American presidents.” In September, when polling numbers suggested that Haddad was gaining steam, the Brazilian currency, the real, plummeted to multiyear lows, but has since bounced back by more than 12 percent against the U.S. dollar. As news of Bolsonaro’s performance spread, investors immediately responded. CNBC noted that “the benchmark Brazilian Bovespa index gained 4.6 percent” the Monday after the election, while the “iShares MSCI Brazil exchange-traded fund (EWZ) jumped 6.74 percent its biggest one-day gain since May 19, 2017, when it rose 6.75 percent.” A number of finance industry analysts took to the airwaves to lay out how impressed Wall Street investors are with the prospects of a Guedes-guided Bolsonaro administration. Julia Leite, a Bloomberg News reporter who covers Brazil, appeared on Bloomberg Markets on October 8 and offered that view. “Markets are reacting really well,” she said. “Markets have a clear preference for Bolsonaro, whose economic adviser is very liberal, who wants to privatize everything, wants to have a smaller state. … So for markets, this is really clear-cut. They want Bolsonaro.” Leite noted that, after the first round election results came in, Bolsonaro did a Facebook Live show featuring not his vice presidential candidate Hamilton Mourão, but Guedes. “Yesterday evening, Bolsonaro didn’t hold a presser but he held a Facebook Live, sitting next to him, not his VP, but his economic adviser,” she noted. “Fascinating symbolism there, that’s terrific,” Bloomberg Markets anchor David Westin replied.

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The Wall Street Journal editorial board heaped praise on Bolsonaro, calling him the “Brazilian Swamp Drainer” and downplaying his violent and antidemocratic rhetoric. At a rally on Sunday in São Paulo, he said he would “wipe the map of these red bandits,” referring to his political opponents. At a previous rally, he said, “Let’s shoot the petralhada here,” using an offensive term for Workers’ Party voters. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Latin America strategist Emy Shayo told Bloomberg Markets on October 8 that the market appreciates certain aspects of a potential Bolsonaro government. “I guess what we know is that he has appointed an economic guru that the market appreciates with a liberal economic policy, and this is better than the alternative at least from what the market knows at this point. So the market has embraced this view from Bolsonaro, and we are seeing stocks and currency rally on the back of that,” she said. Shayo also commented on the Brazilian federal legislature, which shifted even further to the right as a result of the elections. “What we saw, especially in terms of Congress composition, is an important backing for Bolsonaro’s parties, which had no representatives virtually and now will have a decent number of representatives, over 50. And I also expect to see many of the parties that are at the center of the political spectrum to join Bolsonaro and help build this urgent agenda of reforms that Brazil needs,” she said. The JPMorgan Chase strategist also offered some commentary on what she hopes Bolsonaro would achieve in his first term, if he is indeed elected. She pointed to his willingness to cut social security programs. “Our view is that this election is his to lose at this point,” she said. “Beyond this, we need to see a clear up of his economic proposals especially vis-à-vis social security reform and if there will be willingness from Congress to vote [for] this agenda.” Bloomberg Markets followed up by asking if this right-wing agenda would be imperiled by a potentially split Congress. “I am not too worried about this. In the beginning, indeed the Congress is fragmented, but it tends to join together the forces of a president that is elected especially in the first term. Something that we have not seen in Brazil for eight years. So at the beginning, at least Bolsonaro should have a decent, very, very decent support. We have seen the opposition gathering about 30 percent of the vote. This is significant. But he will be able, I think, I hope so at least, to have a margin of maneuver to get the reforms going, which is what Brazil urgently leads.”