Brasilien

 Unlike in the U.S. and Europe, the Brazilian government hasn’t been able to provide much direct help to companies or individuals. Public finances were in severe trouble even before the pandemic, the result of decades of overspending by politicians of all ideological stripes and the lingering effects of a severe recession in 2015 and 2016. The number of public employees has more than doubled in the last three decades. Some are paid almost twice as much as equivalent staff in the private sector and receive outsize retirement packages, although Bolsonaro succeeded in passing a controversial pension reform last year. That kind of spending doesn’t leave much for essential needs such as health care.