Smith International Legal Consultants, P.A.

For this week's edition of Friday Follies, we look at some other popular ideas about Brazil and offer some contrasting views, focusing on environmental laws, the recent struggles in global stock markets, and poker in Brazil.

When many people think of regulation in developing countries, the assumption can often be that it does not really exist. In fact, some companies choose the developing world because of the lack of environmental regulation. In recent years, we have noticed increasing regulation by the Brazilian authorities, and for the souther port of Paranagua, it resulted in a pretty big fine of millions of reais.

With stock markets around the world losing ground, Brazil's market has also pulled back from recent highs. Some observers may assume this would reflect negatively on the Brazilian economy and spur serious concern in the Brazilian government. For the president of the national development bank, BNDES, there is no need to change current policy, and the drop in the stock market does not reflect the continued growth of the Brazilian economy.

Finally, many tourists have the image of Carnival in their heads and imagine some sort of Las Vegas on steroids. While Carnival is real, gambling is much more limited. For years, there has been no casino gambling in Brazil, and authorities typically give a pretty chilly reception to gaming in general, prohibiting advertisements for online poker company Full Tilt Poker.

Anything else this week?

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