Celso Furtado

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Celso Monteiro Furtado (1920 - November 20, 2004) was one of the most influential Brazilian economists, and the most influential leftist economist in Brazil's history. He referred to himself as a socio-politic researcher. He died in Rio on November 20th, 2004, at the age of 84.

Celso Furtado (right) with Brazilian president Lula da Silva (2003)

Furtado worked for several Brazilian governments and influenced the formulation of numerous public policies during the 20th century. Notably, he participated in the government of the president Juscelino Kubitschek and in the creation of SUDENE - "Superintendência do Desenvolvimento do Nordeste" (an agency that worked to stimulate development of the poor Northeast region of Brazil).

[edit] Achievements

While working at CEPAL - Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, an agency at the UN, Furtado and Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch were decisive for the formulation of a socio-economic policy for the development of Latin America.

Furtado was one of the founders of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He was officially indicated for The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences (Nobel Prize) in 2004.

He held, among other academic tiles, a Ph.D. in Economics from Université Paris Sorbonne.

[edit] Published works

Furtado has published more than 30 books, among them: Economic Formation of Brazil (Portuguese: "Formação econômica do Brasil"); The Myth of Economic Development ("O mito do desenvolvimento econômico") and Global Capitalism ("O Capitalismo Global"). The first is his best known book, and the second, thirty years after its first publication, sounds like a prophecy. Many of his books have been translated into various languages.

"O mito do desenvolvimento econômico" was first published in 1974. It is a prophetic book that deserves to be commented on in detail. In the book, Furtado used the Brazilian-Portuguese expression "mundialização da economia" (or the "spread of world economy") to refer to the ongoing economic process now known as globalization. He emphasized many essential aspects of economic development, pointing out important questions for the future. The future of the book is the present day, as some questions suggested by Furtado can show:

1) The myth of economic development versus the need natural resources for economic processes: it's a myth to think that economic development, and its benefits, will some day reach everyone in the world if the model of economic development does not change. For instance, there are not sufficient natural resources available for every person in the world if one considers the economic model on which economy was based in the 1970s and is also based currently, i.e. the model where consumerism and individualism are the base for corporate actions. For instance, if every person had money to buy a car, our cities would be completely frozen. The critics on the myths of economic development were based on a report for the Club of Rome, which is summarized in Abstract of The limits to Growth: a report to The Club of Rome;

2) About poverty: in countries that do not have "central" economies (countries that are not the base for giant corporations), at most 10% of population could reach the level of wealth achieved by people in the richest countries. Peripheral economies, which would not create an independent and more complete economy, would continue to be poor countries, with increasing differences between poor and rich people inside this societies;

3) About the World economic superstructure: The world superstructure of capitalist economy (mainly IMF and GATT, which originated WTO (World Trade Organization) would, on the one hand, increase control over the world economy, also increasing freedom for capital's flows and for big corporations' actions, and, on the other hand, would decrease the number of possible options available for governments, mainly for poor country's governments. This is the kind of development that has been taking place for the last 30 years.