They promised the picanha. That was Lula’s whole pitch four years ago — you could afford the good cut again, the country was healing, table set for everybody. Fine. Here’s the receipt, and it isn’t from a butcher.
Brazil’s central bank says households were spending 26.6 percent of their income on non-mortgage debt payments by June. Twenty-six percent. That’s the steak, the power bill, the kids’ shoes, the car repair — all spoken for before a single grocery goes in the cart. A survey found only 10 percent of Brazilians think their income outran the cost of living last year. Wages beat inflation in the first three years. And people still can’t afford a barbecue because the credit line, the interest rate, and the betting apps ate the raise. That’s not a vibecession. That’s a promise with a goddamn lien on it.
And the other guy? Flávio Bolsonaro filmed himself denouncing supermarket prices with the picanha name-checked for the cameras — and handed voters nothing but tax cuts and spending cuts. His own top advisor is singing Milei’s praises: inflation down, poverty up. So the pitch is ‘vote for me, the price is terrible, I have no plan, and here’s the model where the number improved while poor people got poorer.’ Bullshit with a flag pin on it.
Trump’s tariffs took a bite out of this too, and neither candidate wants to say that out loud — easier to blame the kitchen table than the man who set the price. The steak was always the metaphor. The debt was the delivery. Somebody got paid in the gap, and it wasn’t the butcher on Rio’s north side who’s switching to hamburger patties to survive.
Source story: Picanha and prices loom over Brazil’s tight presidential election.