Brazil celebrated Independence Day twice this year: once on Sept. 7, the anniversary of its independence from Portuguese rule, but also a week before, on Aug. 31, when President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva declared the country "free" from poverty's dominion, delivered by oil.
President Lula's "New Independence Day" accompanied his government's announcement of a proposed overhaul of regulations governing the country's oil and gas industry. The new regulatory model, Lula said, would "allow the government to become the owner of the petroleum." ...