Gone to pot

ON MARCH 8th Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president, used a televised women’s day address to justify the need for belt-tightening. This is required to close a budget deficit of 6.75%, stave off a painful ratings downgrade and revive a flagging economy. In an echo of last year's election campaign, she blamed the country’s economic woes squarely on the global financial crisis (and a record drought in 2014). The government did as much as it could to weather these adverse events, the president explained. “Now we must divide part of this effort between all sections of society.”

As in the election, Ms Rousseff neglected to mention that most other big emerging markets, and many Latin American neighbours, have done better than Brazil. But lots of Brazilians were in any case not listening. As soon as the president appeared on air, several large cities reverberated with the noise of clanging pots. In an unprecedented, and unprecedentedly loud, display of disaffection with their government, thousands took to their windows and balconies with kitchen utensils. In his São Paulo flat, your correspondent could barely make out what the president was saying above the din, which went on for all 15 minutes of the pre-recorded speech.