While adjectives relating to doom and gloom have been used to describe the current economic climates of the United States and many other parts of the world, certain countries are bucking the trend with sustained economic growth. Enter Brazil—a country whose economic history has been rife with mercantilism, socioeconomic reform, rampant inflation, and economic inequality. Now, the country boasts a gross domestic product of almost 2 trillion in 2008, and currently serves as the shining beacon of economic power in Latin America.

Moises Naim of Newsweek recently said of Brazil’s economy, "A labor-union leader who was democratically elected twice and enjoys the world's highest levels of popularity has presided over an amazing period of social and economic progress. It (Brazil) is also one of the few countries that have successfully managed to reduce economic inequality at a time when everywhere else inequities are deepening. Successive Brazilian governments, of rival political parties, have succeeded in improving education, health and the living standards of millions of impoverished citizens who have now joined a growing middle class. Brazil has an energy policy that has spawned the world's most vibrant biofuels industry."

Along with economic policy reforms in the past years, Naim’s comments can be isolated to some factors contributing to Brazil’s economic growth, allowing its current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to incessantly use the catchprase, "Never before in the country’s history."

· Alternative energy sources = The Brazilian government’s efforts to minimize dependence on imported oil has spurned technological advances in producing its own alternative energy sources using natural gas, coal, uranium, hydropower, nuclear energy, wind power, solar power, and tapping into its own abundant oil supply. Brazil is also a leading producer of ethanol, allowing the creation of the National Alcohol Program by the Brazilian government in 1975, which promulgated ethanol to supplant fossil fuels.

· Rich Agriculture = Government policies have been put into place to ramp up production of cattle and to increase harvesting activities. These policies include the availability of financing for new technology and methodologies for increasing agricultural production, encouraging entrepreneurs to enter the agribusiness sector and create jobs in the process. As a result, Brazil has become a gainful producer of beef, coffee, corn, wheat, rice, beans, and many other products.

· Technological advances = Advancement in technology opens up avenues for foreign investment, and Brazil has been amongst the leading contributors in these innovations. Technologically, Brazil has excelled in aeronautical research, developing a number of sophisticated aircraft and watercraft. In addition, Brazil has a satellite launching center that is responsible for contributing to the development of the International Space Station, a research laboratory constructed within an orbiting satellite.

· Minimized foreign debt = According to Desmond Lachman, a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, "As a result of a restrained budget spending policy, Brazil's public finances are now characterized by large primary budget surpluses and by small overall deficits. This has allowed Brazil to considerably reduce its level of public indebtedness and to avoid recourse to inflationary financing." Simply said, when a country isn’t saddled by debt, it allows for an influx of capital that creates budget surpluses, allowing Brazil to reinvest its capital into the country, as well as provide attractive investment opportunities from other countries.

However, Brazil is not impervious to the global recession as recent economic data reveals that the country’s loan default rate hit an eight-year high coupled with a decline in average lending rates. In addition, Brazil’s National Confederation of Industries reports that it projects a 0.4% reduction in GDP in 2009. Yet, despite these blemishes, Brazil’s financial system remains strong and its currency has shown rapid appreciation against the US dollar, showing its economy can certainly take a punch well. According to an article in The Economist, "A host of measures, from the value of the stock market to the creation of credit, are now nearly back to their level before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September last year. The economy performed less badly than expected in the first quarter: GDP shrank by only 0.8% compared with the last three months of 2008. Many analysts believe that Brazil is now starting to grow again, and will return to annual growth of 3.5% to 4% next year. If so, that would mean that the country has escaped with only a brief recession."