But a world miracle may be as hard to achieve as the Brazilian miracle proved to be.

The entire country was affected, and the "Brazilian miracle", a period of rapid growth in the economy ended.

More innovative than its competitor, Folha started to gain hold of the middle classes that were growing under the Brazilian "economic miracle", and became the newspaper of choice for young people and women.

One optimist, Marcilio Marques Moreira, Brazil's Economy Minister, cautioned in an interview here Friday: "Brazil's psychology is pendular - we swing from the Brazilian miracle to the Brazilian disaster.

Brazilian miracle (1968-1973)

From the Amazonian rubber boom to the "Brazilian miracle" of the 1960s, the country has repeatedly seemed on the verge of an economic takeoff, only to slide back again into stagnation.

His economic reforms are credited with paving the way for the Brazilian economic "miracle" of the next decade.

General Geisel, who had been president of the state petroleum company, Petrobras, took office as the so-called "Brazilian miracle" of economic growth was winding down.

Also in 1969, VAR Palmares members planned the kidnapping of Finance Minister Antônio Delfim Netto, planner of the "Brazilian economic miracle" and the most powerful civilian in the regime at that time.

His timing could not have been better: Brazil was just about to enter the period known as "the Brazilian miracle," with real growth rates as high as 8 percent a year despite galloping inflation.