How left-wing on economics is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva?

Two decades ago, when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was running for president, “it was as if a meteor was going to hit Brazil,” recalls Pérsio Arida, a Brazilian economist. Markets “demonised” Lula, as the leftist former president is known. The currency, the real, lost 35% of its value and Lula had to write a letter to the Brazilian people promising that, if elected, he would not do anything rash. After he won, “the meteor disappeared,” says Mr Arida. Lula was fiscally prudent during his first four-year term, between 2003 and 2006. After being re-elected to a second, his Workers’ Party (pt) government used a commodities boom to help the poor. Lula’s policies were sometimes inefficient, and he expanded Brazil’s bureaucracy. But he was neither rash nor radical.