Brazil achieved several decades of rapid growth up to the end of the 1970's. The 1980's were a lost decade as a result of the fallout from the Latin American debt crisis. Inflation was finally brought under control following the introduction of the Real in 1994 and considerable social progress was made thereafter. However, in the last decade Brazil is struggling with sluggish growth and this study traces the underlying cause to high taxes which are due to the Social Security deficit (i.e. public pensions).