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Celso Monteiro Furtado (1920 - November 20, 2004)
was one of the most influential Brazil|Brazilian
economists, and the most influential leftist
economist that Brazil has ever had. He denominated
himself as a socio-politic researcher. 

He held, among other academic tiles, the degree of
Ph.D. in Economics by Universit茅 Paris Sorbonne.

Furtado worked for different federal Brazilian
governments and influenced the formulation of
public policies during 20th century in Brazil,
among which must be mentioned his participation in
the government of the president Juscelino
Kubitschek and the creation of SUDENE -
"Superintend锚ncia do Desenvolvimento do Nordeste"
(an agency for the stimulation of the development
of the poor Northeast region of Brazil). 

Furtado and Argentine economist Ra煤l Prebisch,
while were working at CEPAL -
http://www.cepal.org/ Comisi贸n Econ贸mica para
Am茅rica Latina y el Caribe, an agency of United
Nations|UN, were decisive for the formulation of a
socio-economic policy for the development of Latin
America. 

Furtado was one of the founders of UNCTAD|United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 

Furtado has published more than 30 books, among
them: Economic Formation of Brazil (title in
Portuguese, "Forma莽茫o econ么mica do Brasil");
The Myth of Economic Development (title in
Portuguese, "O mito do desenvolvimento
econ么mico") and Global Capitalism (title in
Portuguese, "O Capitalismo Global"). The first is
his best knowledge book, while the second sounds,
thirty years after its first publication, as a
prophecy. Many of his books have been being
translated in various languages. 

The book named "O mito do desenvolvimento
econ么mico" was first published in 1974. It is a
prophetic book that deserves to be commented in
some details. In the book, Furtado called the
ongoing economic process, that is now known as
globalization, by the Brazilian-Portuguese
expression "mundializa莽茫o da economia" (what
refers to the "spread of world economy"). In the
book Furtado has also emphasized many essential
aspects of economic development, pointing out
important questions for the future. The future of
the book is the present days, as some questions
suggested by Furtado can show: 

1) The myth of economic development versus the
need natural resources for economic processes:
it's a myth to think that economic development,
and its benefits, will some day reach the world
society as a whole if the model of economic
development does not change. For instance, there
are no sufficient natural resources available for
every person in the world if one considers the
economic model in which economy was based in the
70s and is also based nowadays, i.e. the model
where consumerism and individualism are the base
for corporate actions throughout the society. For
instance, if every person had money to buy a car,
our cities would be completely frozen. The critics
on the myths of economic development were based on
a report for the Club of Rome, which is summarized
in http://www.clubofrome.org/archive/reports.php
Abstract of The limits to Growth: a report to The
Club of Rome; 

2) About poverty: in the countries that do not had
"central" economies (countries that were not the
base for the giants corporations), at most 10% of
population could reach the level of richness that
are achieved by people in the richest countries.
Peripheral economies, which would not create an
independent and more complete economy, would
continue to be poor countries, with increasing
differences between poor and rich people inside
this societies; 

3) About the World economic superstructure: The
world superstructure of capitalist economy (mainly
International Monetary Fund|IMF and General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade|GATT, which
originated World Trade Organization|WTO (World
Trade Organization) would, on the one hand,
increase control over World economy, increasing
also freedom for capital's flows and for big
corporations actions, and, on the other hand,
would decrease the number of possible options
available for governments, mainly for poor
country's governments. This is the kind of
development that has been taking place for the
late 30 years.  

Furtado was officially indicated for The Bank of
Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences (Nobel Prize of
Economics) in 2004, but was not prized. He died in
Rio in November 20th, 2004, at the age of 84.

==External links==
*http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604
,1359838,00.html Obituary from The Guardian
*
http://www.pensamentoeconomico.ecn.br/economistas/
celso_furtado.html Celso Furtado in 
http://www.pensamentoeconomico.ecn.br Hist贸ria do
pensamento econ么mico