Hello im come on santa maria this is counting the cost on aljazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week ecuador it took a multi 1000000000. 00 loan from the i. M. F. But while the corporations got tax forgiveness the poor got austerity and i wonder ecuador same 2 months protests look at how the government of lending more i know seemingly got it so wrong also this week shinzo are buying now the longest serving Prime Minister japans ever seen and that is quite your chief mint look at the Economic Policy that bears his name and whether its enabled japan to recover from its lost decade and in the fight against Climate Change we meet the scientists in california working on genetically modified plants to help soak up greenhouse down. There is right now a rebellion in latin america against inequality austerity and the politics of more of the same its not dissimilar to uprisings elsewhere springing from what looked like the most innocuous of changes think about shill. We looked at it a few weeks ago in fact where the rise of train fares led to street protests which then morphed into calls for an end to neo liberalism the idea of leaving everything to the markets and then there were other countries who went looking for help in argentina a sitting president was voted out of power in a protest over all sterile measures imposed by the International Monetary fund it was a condition of a 50 7000000000. 00 bailout and in ecuador it was the i. M. F. And valving which forced the president and cabinet to escape the capital quito ecuador is a fascinating case it requested a 4200000000. 00 loan from the i. M. F. And a condition of that was to cut the budget deficit so the government decided to cut the fuel subsidies which were costing 1300000000. 00 a year now by the numbers it makes sense but when you cut subsidies people generally dont like it and protests forced the government to back the proposal but perhaps even more alarming is that the size of that bailout was also is similar to the size of tax forgiveness which was given to ecuadorian corporations. Why would you do that why would you take a loan to help the corporations but then cut subsidies to the poorest or we did ask the ecuadorian government to explain the decision and while weve heard nothing back yet on this we do expect to interview a government minister in the coming weeks so in lieu of that lets have a little bit of context here were going to start with the budget deficit that the government is facing now in dollar terms we come right out to this year it is expected to hit 3600000000. 00 in 2019 all of that in the light purple that is a budget deficit earlier pretty 2009 the dark blue youre actually looking at a Budget Surplus thats come from the commodities boom because ecuador is a resource rich nation there was also the argument that the government needed to cut its debt so again lets have a look at that starting in 2009 yes debt has very much grown over that time by the end of it were looking at a 4. The 5 percent debt to g. D. P. Ratio but actually you would consider that to be a fairly reasonable level and just because we will inevitably broaden this discussion out to the other protests in the region i want to have a look at latin americas growth so the lines you need to look at are the red line which is latin america and the green line which is the world as a whole it has lagged behind the rest of the world generally speaking right throughout this time period everyone took a dip in 20082009 of course by the end of our graph you can see that latin american economies are very much the last the slowest growing in the world that would broadly explain much of the unrest that weve seen with us now on skype from ribot in morocco is. He is a senior fellow at the policy center for the new south and he so much for your time today. It could all have start with a quid or austerity for the poor and tax breaks if you want to call them that tax relief for the corporations it just seems to me that ecuador got this one really wrong. See. Our faces a downton challenge associated with the fact that that it has a bill arised economy so whenever it just doesnt have the actions rate change that means to do that so its almost to the fiscal and then it becomes a matter defining who gets the burden of the fiscal adjustment. I understand and i follow this closely i live in washington and i have worked in the past in the world bank and International Monetary fund and i know there were some good variance between the view because of the math and the government but i do it with respect to how to do that fiscal adjustment the auction on scrapping fuel subsidies had impacts differentiated impacts on the social structure and thats what ended up leading to that reaction and everything that came that follow now its a tricky route that one that the president has to to cross because he has to get some way to boost revenues mind with the expenditure cutting and to do it in a way that minimizes the impact on the lower part of the income pyramid of either go to the want the part that is associated with Indigenous People and so what. Are you sorry to interrupt he has to also satisfy the i. M. F. Doesnt be interested in your opinion as someone who used to work there the idea that yes the i. M. F. Is there to help but it will always put these demands on there that well youve got to cut your budgets youve got about you know cut you deficit and it can almost create more problems. The issue is that ecuador in these difficult judgment regarded as out of the i. M. F. s it would be the same in challenge the same kind of decisions would have to be taken whether or not the i. M. F. Was there its simple and as a very is a temptation sometimes to use the im not a scapegoat while the problems the necessity of fiscal adjustment in ecuador would be there with or without the i. M. F. Is not its not the i. M. F. That. Must receive any blame for that. Any in fact to a large extent the map and all the days. By the early in the case of countries of that size and this is not aggregating the rights to say where to make the cuts but. In order for the resource from them have to be justified there the fiscal adjustment has to happen but way to cut how to raise revenues and so one is mostly a domestic call right and side domestic call made an equitable with field subsidies and absolutely no surprise that people didnt like that now it might have been a necessary thing and i thought well this is where we can we can trim the fat but you almost cant be surprised that the reaction has been yes but the abbott happened on 2nd thought i know that the preference on the m. F. Side was on the just think the value added tax. The getting the fuel subsidies for the docks kelly while in some other countries it might benefit particularly the poor. Because. As long as it is a companion by compensatory social policies. The fact is that the major beneficiaries of fuel subsidies very often are the middle classes who was the cars who. Benefit from the Oil Subsidies and so on but in the case of ecuador apparently the burden would be split between the fractions of the population but i know for one that the preference of of the i. M. F. Recess was on i just think that whether taxes not attacking the few subsidies and funnel would if i could get from you on persil currencies that an all time low there what sort of what sort of future do you predict for the next 12 months look at the genres of brazil has had its. Its load of. Movements in this region so 11 of the person a region that was 2013 as a reaction action to 2 the issues seen at the time the corruption as a reaction to your demands for. Better quality in Public Service and so one that the brazilian economy has been suffering from what i call a combination. And then mic productivities. And Public Sector obesity. This is what lies behind the crisis the deep recession that happened in 28152016 why the recovery has been so slow its gradually bumping up we might have in brazil a gross rage above 2 percent next year. But at the same time the unemployment remains very high and so. To some extent i dont expect a sort of a Street Movement a similar to the ones that have taken place in chile or ecuador colonia right or or to some extent on a tina before the elections and so on because of some example asians a bit tired of it it went to the streets in 2013 ask a different change a change has taken place. But the if of the new Economic Policy or is still not lets say thered 2 right now. And i dont believe there will be any sort of. Strength in calling people to the streets to complain what will bring about the change to the men changed the change have taken place but now there is going to be some time before they bear fruit champ very similar things all over the continent as and out of the on a commuter talking latin america with us thank you for your time. Thank you. Now 2 a milestone for japans Prime Minister on the verge of a 20th shinzo i served his 2800 and 87th day in office which now makes him the longest serving Prime Minister in japanese history now this is significant for 2 reasons one his 1st term lasted only a year he quit amid accusations he violated electoral laws and 2 there were 5 other Prime Ministers between his 1st and 2nd terms all of which only lasted about a year each at the start of that 2nd term and 22. 00 of our bodies namesake Economic Policy grabbed the attention of economists and policymakers so japan had a problem after the stock market and property crashes in the 990. 00 s. The economy had been struggling with deflation and slowing growth so obvious promise to combat that with a 3 pronged economic plan known as abu nomics 1st the bank of japan had to get involved using its powers to buy government bonds and stocks you might have heard of this is quantitative easing the 2nd step to increase Infrastructure Spending and the 3rd was to make structural changes to the worlds 4th largest economy for the most part it has been a failure because prices are still low but questions have also been raised about his over friendly relationship with president general trump which did finally deliver a trade deal that avoids a protracted trade war with us on skype from tokyo is hes the managing director and chief economist of japan Macro Advisors great to have you with us whats mr are they doing good whats mistah they doing right do you think he has been in power longer than any other japanese Prime Minister is it that he is genuinely a good strong Prime Minister or is it more that hes a bit lucky and there arent any real alternatives at the moment well i would say so yes in that sense that. Anime has made it. So there has been a. Favorable environment on meet the press but then i would also say it wasnt just flat he did it implemented several major for its use and i think that martin will then probably see that when you know that hes planning a special is by forcing back with the band. And that that has been weve. Seen since the beginning so i would say he picked these policies right right ok so that was one of the prongs of a nominee as it was known and it sounds to me like you think its been a success but even so even with the bank of japan doing what its supposed to even with there being Infrastructure Improvements prices are still low in japan and that could be equally viewed as a buy nomics not being a success. So bad with the bad definitely failed you need. To maintain flesh and back to step down i think that will carry a stab. That hasnt really bad i mean up till monsoon there and thats where you want to see their prices do go up so i think far as far as the Prime Minister is on certain i think that most of the corys see this extra link wont be easing by the paper demand has been and it is. Do you think the model of a nomics and the way its worked can be used elsewhere or was it was it peculiar to japan at a at a certain time or is it something which other countries could look at that could work for us well i think theyre feeling work for the center but i mean i am basically back with a. Lot of sleep on t. V. Saying its not. A massive bond purchase knowing interest thats in. And at the center backs so the reading in itself is not particularly. Lets talk about mr relationship with other World Leaders specifically and everything seems to come back to him these days but us President Donald Trump was criticized for being perhaps too close to the u. S. President but then he also did manage to strike a deal didnt he which avoided one of mr trumps favorite things which is tariffs did he do the right thing in this relationship do you think he did i think i can be quite proud of how he managed his relationship with president you know and i think that was he was very proud of. Ignoring. Diversity like you know president jiang being a somewhat racist sexist i think the Prime Minister having you know hats all over. Europe candy that they have to live with that so i think that Prime Minister has a very pragmatic in his approach. So is this all enough to keep him in power do you think i think there is a term limits but as i also pointed out earlier you know there have been 5 Prime Ministers in between his 2 terms they each only serve one year this is a real anomaly to have a japanese leader so strong for so long. Indeed so i do i do believe that this has actually given us that beat and. Consistency happens but its leap so i think that is well nothing wrong with having one Prime Minister rule for all that and so i think that having said that i mean he has already extended and the pattern live in front of to defeat them already so i do not think you will try this again after all it still remains that democratic country and i dont think it is. Any ambition to become a dictator. What else would he need to do though in his future years as leader because he cant just carry on the same idea of a brain or makes it was a very specific thing which he brought in and there are bigger structural issues arguably in japan to deal with with with you know long term unemployment and aging populations and yet the debt to g. D. P. Ratios things which will need to be addressed. So i would say at that point of easing so they had started our. Policy which had i was the only merits of term structural for example like last year from establish their past that you know action lots of japan has been hasnt been accepting integration but he has now there was a law passed last year that i think is more embracing the i. P. L. By calling more and people coming to work in japan and maybe apps weve got death and aids so i think it has actually so he wasnt just nonduality and. Has a talk radio group are joining us from tokyo talking about shinzo are both thank you so much thank you. Ok lets talk Climate Change now the general consensus is that to say about planet from overheating we need to cut our fossil fuel consumption and Carbon Emissions but what do we do with the emissions that already exist and will inevitably continue to be created well some scientists in california are working on for this genetically modifying plants so that they soak up Greenhouse Gases more effectively sounds like a plan doesnt it our reynolds want to find out. For planet earth and for dr joe ensure its a race against time jury is a multiple Award Winning plant biologist at the Salt Institute in california shes also been battling parkinsons disease for more than a decade her old idea is to genetically modify existing crop plants to reduce the planet warming chemical Carbon Dioxide we knew that plants really were good at sucking up c o 2 from the air and theyve had 450000000 years or more. Evolution and that makes the plant really efficient some plants can get that c o 2 out of the atmosphere and they can concentrate in the music during from so this is think back to your School Science lesson photosynthesis is the process by which plants convert sunlight water and c o 2 into stems and leaves and sea plants expel oxygen as a byproduct but while forests are shrinking globally farmland is expanding the fact that cory says can help cut 0 to the beauty of our planet actually comes down to that when using the food. Weve given them the another tray they can see questions coming and put it down in the sling the basic idea behind this science is to genetically modified crops plants like for cotton or soybeans to absorb more atmospheric carbon carbon is then stored in the plants roots and kept under round out of the air the Scientific Team wants to develop food crops that will grow longer deeper roots to sequester the extra c o 2 they absorb in their tissues as they grow the hope is over. A decade or more that enough of that Carbon Dioxide will be sucked out of the atmosphere that we will be able to begin to mitigate the rising c o 2 levels because of the burning of fossil fuels jory admits its a Bold Initiative which could take years to implement if the gene manipulation is successful but for her its personal and there isnt are you seeing with this project and for me you know im 64 years old ok ive had parkinsons for 16 years thats a long time while i feel good i have to do this you know you have to stay so on point to get it done right every single goal you have to keep your eye on that go joy ensuring a warrior in a laboratory fighting for planet earth finally this week all lives from pakistan popping up the 1st place you think of for a decidedly Mediterranean Food but believe it or not pakistan actually has more suitable land for all of cultivation that spai