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“The Craft Superpower”, written by Mac Margolis, published in Newsweek.
By turns charming and cagey, cool to America and close to Obama, Lula is building a unique regional giant.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is on a roll. In recent weeks he’s shared a dais with Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy, and drew effusive praise (“My man!”) from Barack Obama at the G20 summit in London. He even had a photo op with Queen Elizabeth II. The former machine-tool worker, who spent decades picketing “savage capitalism,” is now the toast of bankers and boardrooms. “Don’t you think it’s chic that we are now lending the IMF money?” he joked at a press conference.
