大象传媒

Brazil's political troubles go from bad to worse. The latest - a judge has blocked the appointment of the former president, Lula, as chief of staff to the current president, Dilma Rousseff. On top of that, the lower house of congress has set up a committee to look at impeaching the president. Silio Boccanera, London correspondent of Brazil's Globo TV News, tells us whether he thinks the processes of Brazilian politics have broken down.

Brazil's currency and share markets have also been in turmoil, and the latest figures suggest the economy has shrunk markedly. Fernando Sampaio, director of macroeconomics at LCA consultants in Sao Paulo, gives his take on the situation.

The oil price has been at historic lows of late, because supply exceeds demand. The reason we know this is that the people who monitor global oil supply have done the calculations. But it seems they may have got it wrong, as around 800,000 barrels of Brent Crude has gone missing. In fact they may not exist at all. This has been revealed in a report in the Wall Street Journal. The report's author Georgi Kantchev, explains.

Plus... Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg - what do they have in common? They're all college drop-outs. So why bother with a business degree, let alone a graduate business degree, if you can make it to the top of the business world without one? From New York, the 大象传媒's Michelle Fleury reports on the value of an MBA.

All this and more discussed with our guests on both sides of the Pacific. Simon Long, Asia Editor of The Economist magazine, in Singapore and Alison van Diggelen of Fresh Dialogues in Stanford, California.

(Photo: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Credit: Reuters)