Determinants of the rates of profit and accumulation in Brazil: the structural factors of the cyclical deterioration of 2014-2015

ABSTRACT The trends in profit and accumulation rates are key indicators in the analysis of economic crises. These variables account for the trajectories of economic growth and they are conditioned by the functional distribution of income. The deterioration of the macroeconomic conjuncture from 2014, in Brazil, has often been attributed, by mainstream analysis, to the errors inherent in the so-called “new matrix of economic policy”. However, the analysis of profit and accumulation rates, immediately after the impact of the US crisis in Brazil, in 2009, shows the existence of structural factors that are characteristic of the current Brazilian economy, which could not be overcome by countercyclical fiscal and monetary policies.