Wednesday morning readings

My creativity is hitting new lows; fortunately there are several better minds around the world deserving a reading:

- Tyler Cowen is around here, and dares to answer the multimillion dollar question: why real interest rates are so high in Brazil? (Marginal Revolution)

- Wanna raise profits by 67%? Cut provisions for credit losses by 83%. Banks' balance sheets are pieces of fiction (Bloomberg).

- 120 years of home prices in US (The Big Picture).

- Schroders discusses Germany and the future of the euro (Scribd).

- The Economist's forum discusses capital controls, their utility and application (Economics by Invitation).

- Dani Rodrik, his meeting with Saif Qaddafi and the moral dilemma of helping dictatorships (Project Syndicate).

- A good summary of Scott Sumner's defense of nominal GDP targets (Adam Smith Institute).

Comrade Renato, tortured and banker

Meet the second most famous former VAR-Palmares guerrilla (the first is called Dilma Rousseff and is president of a country south of the Equator): Persio Arida, one of the greatest Brazilian economists, former president of Brazil Central Bank and one of the main partners of BTG Pactual bank. At 18, in 1970, Persio was arrested and tortured by the military dictatorship. The thrilling story (though I didn't like the style), totally unknown till now, is the chapter of an autobiography to be released yet this year, and fills a good part of the latest piauí magazine. It's not yet on the website, it'll probably appear there soon (in Portuguese), and it's definitely a worth reading.