Read the Banco Ital and the Real Plan case from the case book and respond to the following questions:

1. Why is Brazil different and how?
2. What effect did the inflation have on people's behavior?
3. Why was there little or no lending at any interest rate fixed for more than one day?
4. What was wrong with Brazil's capital markets?
5. How were banks performing at that time?
6. Why had the previous efforts failed?
7. What in fact was the Real Plan?
8. Was this plan any more likely to succeed than the previous plans?
9. What effect would the Real Plan have on the economy and on financial markets?
10. What were the debt and the foreign exchange markets suggesting?
11. Evaluate Banco Itau's strategy in the wake of increasing competition?