You're listening to Taking Stock with Pim Fox and Kathleen Hayes on Bloomberg Radio The Real Olympics. I must say Pim Fox that I already missed them. We spent a lot of time in my household watching and it on one of these that really struck me as something we're gonna take up with our next guest. That's that there was so much concern, rightfully so, about the condition the Olympic stadium would be in, about crime, about water, so
many issues. And of course there was the diving pool that turned green temporarily during the high diving competition, but they weren't a disaster. Now what this question is being raised by Jonathan Levin. He's a reporter for Bloomberg News. In fact, he's part of our Bloomberg Olympic team that's been on the ground in Rio. First of all, Jonathan, welcome, and second of all, I wish I could have been there with you. Yeah, I bet good afternoon. So what is what is the You've got your looking at Rio
now right, this is a very costly event. Uh, What's what's facing them at the point and what does how does it link to this Olympics which it seems to me all in all, was pretty successful. Sure, So the point of our story today was just sort of this idea that you know, Rio to a certain extent has been buoyed over the past seven years by this massive, massive infrastructure project that was preparing for these Olympic Games. Right. They built a huge Olympic park out in suburban Baja
with any number of stadiums. They built a new metro line, and this created thousands and thousands of jobs, which bufford Rio to a certain extent from the greater financial crisis, the greater economic crisis I should say that that Brazil has been going through. And then there's there's this security question that people always talk about when they talk about Rio, uh and security. Some people would be surprised to know has gotten better over the past decade, but they still
have such a long way to go. And um, you know, the point is, over the past three we it's felt a little bit better. There was this massive deployment eighty five thousand police and soldiers in the streets that made it feel to a certain extent like a different city. But now over the coming weeks and months, all of that goes away and it's back to the harsh reality
form for many of the folks here in the city. Jonathan, I just want to go through maybe a little bit of a checklist following the proposed budget of thirteen billion dollars for the games, which I imagine has been exceeded, although we do not know an exact number. Um, but is it true that hospitals in Brazil are in a precarious situation because they don't have money? Uh? It is, Yeah, it is true. I mean it's a little bit tricky when you get into um, when you get into state finances.
Well we can just go through, well, just do a little check mark, I mean, because I want to go through a bunch of these things. So for example, all right, so hospitals have got are in trouble, state universities work, they're they're on strike. Correct. Um, I don't know about I don't know about that, Pim. At least I heard the police stations are running out of paper. Police stations. Absolutely absolutely, we're going through some self financial times, a
lot of a lot of penny pinching. You could even, um say, there was a time when when police officers, folks who you really need to be on on your side, we're we're facing late paychecks, so, you know, not the not the right move from right? Also, Johns, So are they that much worse shape than they were before the Olympics? Number one, because this downslide in Brazil has been really tough, right there on a big upswing with hindsight, would they have bid? Of course? They've also got the World Cup
soccer event coming at least. I gotta say, I'm so happy they won the gold in uh in soccer, their national sport. But so I think pam Rais is a good point. They're really hurting. They spend all this money, what do they do now? Yeah, that's the thing. I'm
I mean, you're right, Um, it was. It was a different time back in two thousand nine when Brazil won the rights to host host these games and and a lot of times it's politicians who bid for these things because they want to showcase sort of brand Brazil and brand Brazil looked looked a lot different back in two thousand nine. Uh, you know, the heavy days of of
the Lulie years. The stock market was booming, I p O s were booming, M and A was booming, and it's it's a it's a different country right now, is what it is? What about the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Pace, Yeah exactly. So, I mean, you know, I think the feeling is going to be going forward that that he did a good job pulling this off and as he looks forward to whatever his next step maybe um, you know, but he's trying to stop up parliamentary inquire
commission being opened to investigate the spending in the Olympics. Yeah, I mean there, Yeah, there's been a there have been a great deal of questions about transparency with regards to the execution of Rio and yeah that up until now they haven't wanted to to fully disclose what's going on. Yeah. Well, so, Jonathan, what's the conversation in the street, what's the conversation in the businesses and the taxi cabs are resilience, angry that there their country spent so much at a time when
there's so much poverty and so much need. Are they proud that they pulled it off and hoping that this will boost the desire to visit Brazil do business there. Yeah, I mean the funny thing is that, you know, we'll have to have this conversation again in a couple of weeks because of the games. The excitement of the games
really do change the conversation. I remember in the in the weeks and months leading up to the start of the event, everybody was sort of talking about, you know, come on, you know, how how how how could we be dedicating resources to building things like a velodrome, right, an indoor bicycle track when this, uh, this city needs so much in terms of uh, you know, basic infrastructure. Um. But at the same time, people really get into it, right, well, they certainly do get into it. I want to thank
you very much. Jonathan Levin. He is a reporter for Bloomberg News, joining us from Rio de Janeiro. And just to note that on Thursday, dil marussef her impeachment trial in Brazil begins. Thank you for listening to Taking Stock. I'm Pim Fox along with my co host Kathleen Hayes. This is Bloomberg