RIO DE JANEIRO — I came to Brazil in the 1980s at a time of funny money. Inflation peaked at 6,821 percent in April 1990. Today it’s a place of funny prices. An ordinary Chilean red may go for $100 and brand-name sneakers for $350. Paris and New York seem like a steal. 

 The funny money was given many names — cruzeiro, cruzado, cruzado novo, cruzeiro real — in search of an elusive credibility. But Brazil had only one name: instability. Then came the introduction of the real in 1994, solid democratic institutions, monetary reform, privatizations, booming commodities, trade with China, massive oil discoveries — and pizza margarita at $45. 

This boom-era Brazilian pizza makes me glum. A certain swagger is needed to bake and flog flat, round bread for that price — the very swagger gone from the West. We are living the great global inversion. The price tag screams: You’re history, baby! 

It can certainly seem that way. Citibank officers once viewed Brazil as a basket case: there’s a story of tables turned. Brazilian capitalism has fared better than U.S. capitalism of late and a lot better than U.S. banks. Inequality, still marked, has declined here in recent years. Of all the fast-growing Brazilian commodities, confidence is the most conspicuous. 

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