Brazil is a country where spectacular displays of wealth coexist with barefaced poverty, making it one of the most unequal nations in the Americas. In 2010 Alex Cuadros was hired by Bloomberg News to report on the rise of Brazilian billionaires, an elite group whose growing riches mirrored the ascendancy of their country as a global economic powerhouse. Cuadros will explain how many of these fortunes were made thanks to influence peddling and whether the recent well‐​publicized corruption scandals that rocked the country could be a signal of strengthening institutions. João Augusto de Castro Neves will offer his insights about the political and economic crisis engulfing Brazil.