Brazil's economic and political crisis has picked up steam in recent months, but has accelerated in recent weeks, and threatens to become even worse, with more ratings downgrades likely and possibly key officials falling victim to the downturn. Markets have plunged in recent days, with the real breaking 3.80 against the dollar in Thursday morning trading in Sao Paulo, and local analysts say they probably have not hit bottom yet. "We haven't yet seen large scale capital flight or a currency crisis, but we might if the current situation continues," Luciano Rostagno, chief economist for Banco Mizuho's Brazil unit, told ... (full story)