<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/opinion/nocera-does-brazil-have-the-answer.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20140121">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/opinion/nocera-does-brazil-have-the-answer.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20140121</a><br><br></div><div id="article" role="article" style="border-bottom-width: 0px;"><div class="page" style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 25px;"><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.25em; color: rgb(75, 75, 75); -webkit-hyphens: manual;"><b>Does Brazil Have the Answer? </b><span class="byline-author" data-byline-name="Joe Nocera" itemprop="name" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: nyt-franklin, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/joenocera/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by JOE NOCERA" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: nyt-franklin, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Joe Nocera</a></span></h1><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.25em; color: rgb(75, 75, 75); -webkit-hyphens: manual;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 25px;">Not long after I got back from my recent trip to Brazil, I called some economists to gain a better understanding of where the country stood economically. To me, Rio de Janeiro felt a little like Shanghai: there was plenty of high-end shopping in neighborhoods like Ipanema — and plenty of poverty in the favelas, or slums. There was also a lot in between. What is most striking to a visitor is how many middle-class citizens there seem to be. Cars were everywhere; traffic jams, I’ve come to believe, are a sign of a growing middle class. It means people have enough money to buy automobiles.</span></h1></div></div></body></html>