How Fake Money Saved Brazil (2010)
This economic plan - pegging to the US dollar - led to large current account deficits.<p>The only reason why this "worked" was because following the plan imposed by foreign investors (i.e. the IMF) meant that they could secure foreign currency.<p>This still meant that they were basically swapping hyperinflation for racking up a huge external debt instead, and they were essentially more dependent upon foreign investors. The fact that this 'worked' and didn't lead to disaster was probably due to the fact that oil prices kept creeping up. Currency pegging was used in Venezuela too and that story ended in disaster.<p>In terms of poverty reduction, Lula's Bolsa Familia program was more effective than this at actually helping people, but foreign investors love the story about how "Brazil was made safe again for foreign investors".