Brazilian President Lula: United States made a casino of its economy

The President of South America's largest economy, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused the United States and others of making "a true casino" out of their economies, during an official two-day visit to Colombia over the weekend, leading Argentine daily Clarin reported. Lula was addressing an estimated 1,000 Colombian and Brazilian businesspeople in Bogota when he said that many of the world's recent problems - including rising food prices - were caused more by the international crisis than by issues inherent to the economies of the region.

Lula blamed "the few banks and rich countries that made a true casino of their economies, as was the case of the sub-prime [mortgage] crisis in the United States."

He said the weight of this international crisis should therefore not fall "on our shoulders" and demanded that international financial institutions do something. "Otherwise we run the risk of frustrating the dreams of growth and development of countries such as Argentina and others," he was quoted as saying.




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PHOTO: File photo "Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2007" by World Economic Forum