Nelson de Sá: Robin Brooks, the bald man, scolds Faria Lima spokespersons

In April, Bloomberg profiled Robin Brooks under the headline “In Bald Guy We Trust,” a pun on the dollar bill motto. It was republished in Brazil as “No bald we trust” or “In careca we trust”, the expression popularized on social media in the country.

The bald man is chief economist at the Institute for International Finance in Washington, an association of the world’s largest private financial institutions. Optimistic about Brazil, he went viral, accumulating followers on Twitter, some of them “Bolsonaro voters”, hence the various profiles in economic media.

Brooks was an economist at the IMF and the lead currency strategist at Goldman Sachs, also hailed as “Goldman’s bald.” For three years, during the Bolsonaro administration, he has been saying that the fair value for the Brazilian currency is R$4.50 per dollar.

This week, the bald guy hasn’t changed, but Faria Lima has, now betting against the real — and against Lula. Brooks on Saturday:

“We were inundated with charges to weaken our long-standing calculation of the fair value of R$4.50. We are not going to do any of that. The outcome in this election is not important. In fact, it was about whether Brazil could avoid a January 6 US style. he did it🇧🇷 The real will recover to R$4.50.”

He did not stop there, speaking directly to his followers in the country’s financial market:

“Brazil had elections two weeks ago and the transfer of power is peaceful. The rarest of those present: a large emerging economy with a functioning democracy. What do markets do? They punish Brazil. Have we learned nothing from watching the autocrats in 2022?🇧🇷

Many followers reacted, but Brazilian economist Monica de Bolle of Johns Hopkins University, who had been saying the same thing, translated and retweeted: “Thank you @RobinBrooksIIF, Thank you!“. The bald man retweeted back.