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Levin on Rio Olympics Providing Distraction (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Taking Stock with Pim Fox and Kathleen
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  Speaker 1: Hayes on Bloomberg Radio The Real Olympics. I must say
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  Speaker 1: Pim Fox that I already missed them. We spent a
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  Speaker 1: lot of time in my household watching and it on
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  Speaker 1: one of these that really struck me as something we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna take up with our next guest. That's that there
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  Speaker 1: was so much concern, rightfully so, about the condition the
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  Speaker 1: Olympic stadium would be in, about crime, about water, so
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  Speaker 1: many issues. And of course there was the diving pool
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  Speaker 1: that turned green temporarily during the high diving competition, but
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  Speaker 1: they weren't a disaster. Now what this question is being
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  Speaker 1: raised by Jonathan Levin. He's a reporter for Bloomberg News.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, he's part of our Bloomberg Olympic team that's
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  Speaker 1: been on the ground in Rio. First of all, Jonathan, welcome,
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  Speaker 1: and second of all, I wish I could have been
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  Speaker 1: there with you. Yeah, I bet good afternoon. So what
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  Speaker 1: is what is the You've got your looking at Rio
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  Speaker 1: now right, this is a very costly event. Uh, What's
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  Speaker 1: what's facing them at the point and what does how
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  Speaker 1: does it link to this Olympics which it seems to
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  Speaker 1: me all in all, was pretty successful. Sure, So the
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  Speaker 1: point of our story today was just sort of this
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  Speaker 1: idea that you know, Rio to a certain extent has
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  Speaker 1: been buoyed over the past seven years by this massive,
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  Speaker 1: massive infrastructure project that was preparing for these Olympic Games. Right.
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  Speaker 1: They built a huge Olympic park out in suburban Baja
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  Speaker 1: with any number of stadiums. They built a new metro line,
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  Speaker 1: and this created thousands and thousands of jobs, which bufford
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  Speaker 1: Rio to a certain extent from the greater financial crisis,
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  Speaker 1: the greater economic crisis I should say that that Brazil
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  Speaker 1: has been going through. And then there's there's this security
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  Speaker 1: question that people always talk about when they talk about Rio,
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  Speaker 1: uh and security. Some people would be surprised to know
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  Speaker 1: has gotten better over the past decade, but they still
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  Speaker 1: have such a long way to go. And um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the point is, over the past three we it's felt
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  Speaker 1: a little bit better. There was this massive deployment eighty
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  Speaker 1: five thousand police and soldiers in the streets that made
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  Speaker 1: it feel to a certain extent like a different city.
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  Speaker 1: But now over the coming weeks and months, all of
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  Speaker 1: that goes away and it's back to the harsh reality
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  Speaker 1: form for many of the folks here in the city. Jonathan,
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  Speaker 1: I just want to go through maybe a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of a checklist following the proposed budget of thirteen billion
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  Speaker 1: dollars for the games, which I imagine has been exceeded,
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  Speaker 1: although we do not know an exact number. Um, but
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  Speaker 1: is it true that hospitals in Brazil are in a
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  Speaker 1: precarious situation because they don't have money? Uh? It is, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it is true. I mean it's a little bit tricky
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  Speaker 1: when you get into um, when you get into state finances.
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  Speaker 1: Well we can just go through, well, just do a
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  Speaker 1: little check mark, I mean, because I want to go
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  Speaker 1: through a bunch of these things. So for example, all right,
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  Speaker 1: so hospitals have got are in trouble, state universities work,
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  Speaker 1: they're they're on strike. Correct. Um, I don't know about
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  Speaker 1: I don't know about that, Pim. At least I heard
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  Speaker 1: the police stations are running out of paper. Police stations.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, we're going through some self financial times, a
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  Speaker 1: lot of a lot of penny pinching. You could even,
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  Speaker 1: um say, there was a time when when police officers,
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  Speaker 1: folks who you really need to be on on your side,
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  Speaker 1: we're we're facing late paychecks, so, you know, not the
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  Speaker 1: not the right move from right? Also, Johns, So are
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  Speaker 1: they that much worse shape than they were before the Olympics?
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  Speaker 1: Number one, because this downslide in Brazil has been really tough,
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  Speaker 1: right there on a big upswing with hindsight, would they
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  Speaker 1: have bid? Of course? They've also got the World Cup
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  Speaker 1: soccer event coming at least. I gotta say, I'm so
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  Speaker 1: happy they won the gold in uh in soccer, their
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  Speaker 1: national sport. But so I think pam Rais is a
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  Speaker 1: good point. They're really hurting. They spend all this money,
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  Speaker 1: what do they do now? Yeah, that's the thing. I'm
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you're right, Um, it was. It was a
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  Speaker 1: different time back in two thousand nine when Brazil won
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  Speaker 1: the rights to host host these games and and a
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  Speaker 1: lot of times it's politicians who bid for these things
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  Speaker 1: because they want to showcase sort of brand Brazil and
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  Speaker 1: brand Brazil looked looked a lot different back in two
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  Speaker 1: thousand nine. Uh, you know, the heavy days of of
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  Speaker 1: the Lulie years. The stock market was booming, I p
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  Speaker 1: O s were booming, M and A was booming, and
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  Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a different country right now, is
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  Speaker 1: what it is? What about the mayor of Rio de Janeiro,
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  Speaker 1: Eduardo Pace, Yeah exactly. So, I mean, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: think the feeling is going to be going forward that
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  Speaker 1: that he did a good job pulling this off and
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  Speaker 1: as he looks forward to whatever his next step maybe um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, but he's trying to stop up parliamentary inquire
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  Speaker 1: commission being opened to investigate the spending in the Olympics. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I mean there, Yeah, there's been a there have been
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  Speaker 1: a great deal of questions about transparency with regards to
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  Speaker 1: the execution of Rio and yeah that up until now
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  Speaker 1: they haven't wanted to to fully disclose what's going on. Yeah. Well, so, Jonathan,
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  Speaker 1: what's the conversation in the street, what's the conversation in
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  Speaker 1: the businesses and the taxi cabs are resilience, angry that
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  Speaker 1: there their country spent so much at a time when
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  Speaker 1: there's so much poverty and so much need. Are they
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  Speaker 1: proud that they pulled it off and hoping that this
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  Speaker 1: will boost the desire to visit Brazil do business there. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I mean the funny thing is that, you know, we'll
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  Speaker 1: have to have this conversation again in a couple of
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  Speaker 1: weeks because of the games. The excitement of the games
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  Speaker 1: really do change the conversation. I remember in the in
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  Speaker 1: the weeks and months leading up to the start of
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  Speaker 1: the event, everybody was sort of talking about, you know,
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  Speaker 1: come on, you know, how how how how could we
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  Speaker 1: be dedicating resources to building things like a velodrome, right,
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  Speaker 1: an indoor bicycle track when this, uh, this city needs
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  Speaker 1: so much in terms of uh, you know, basic infrastructure. Um.
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  Speaker 1: But at the same time, people really get into it, right, well,
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  Speaker 1: they certainly do get into it. I want to thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much. Jonathan Levin. He is a reporter for
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg News, joining us from Rio de Janeiro. And just
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  Speaker 1: to note that on Thursday, dil marussef her impeachment trial
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  Speaker 1: in Brazil begins. Thank you for listening to Taking Stock.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Pim Fox along with my co host Kathleen Hayes.
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  Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg