We have a much higher penetration in countries like Brazil and Poland, where phone rates are high and service is hit or miss in some places.

Brazil tends to be driven by the U.S. and people have got their eye on the Nasdaq. There's no strong reason locally for the decline.

Brazil wouldn't appoint a foreign coach, Germany wouldn't, Italy wouldn't, Spain wouldn't and neither would France or Holland, so why should we?

And my generation in Brazil was influenced by Cinema Novo. So we're echoing what's been done way in the past.

Brazil has in many ways a very robust economy,

It has a very strong corporate sector, a very sensible government and Brazil is a place that is going to do extremely well over the medium term after this rough patch is out of the way.

To be frank, it doesn't surprise me. Chavez is a case apart; but if you look at the finance ministers -- Chile, Uruguay, Brazil -- all of them would please Milton Friedman with their fiscal discipline and their closing down of debts. And even those on the left stress 'effectiveness' as the model. It shows that the old labels don't have a lot of meaning in the present context.

With this move, he risks alienating natural and otherwise sympathetic partners like Brazil and Spain. Ordering the military to seize the natural gas fields is unnecessarily confrontational and antagonistic.

Very few producers can make money at 50 cents a pound. Brazil needs 65 cents and that's still cheap. For most, breakeven is around $1.

It is a perfect time for populism. It will be more and more difficult for Brazil to resist.