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RIO DE JANEIRO -- When Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Summer Olympic Games seven years ago, Wagner Bastos was a hotshot car salesman for Rio Citroen-Peugeot. Some months he earned 17,000 Brazilian reais -- about $5,200 now and much more back then.But Brazils fortunes -- and Bastos -- have taken a sickening tumble. His last monthly paycheck in June was for 1,400 reais ($425) -- too little to cover his rent or school fees for two children. So Bastos, 54, quit and started driving a taxi.I needed cash urgently, he says.In the past, hosting the Olympics often allowed newly prosperous countries to strut on the world stage and showcase their glitziest cities. Think Tokyo in 1964 or Seoul in 1988.And in 2009, when Rio won the competition for this years Summer Games, the picture looked similar. Brazils emerging market economy was sizzling -- one of the worlds economic superstars, along with Russia, India, China and South Africa.But the 16 Games come at a dire moment for Brazil, which is enduring myriad calamities: A deep recession. A political crisis. Widespread street protests. Reports of filthy waterways. And a health emergency caused by the Zika virus.There have been political and economic problems in other (Olympic) host cities, says Andrew Zimbalist, an economist at Smith College who has studied Olympic Games. But the combination here has probably been as foreboding as any I have seen.Brazils economy shrank 3.8 percent last year and will likely contract an additional 3.3 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The economy was rocked by a plunge in prices for iron ore and other commodities it exports, partly a result of slowing demand as Chinas powerhouse economy decelerated.In the booming mid-2000s, Brazilians celebrated their collective arrival in the middle class by borrowing heavily to buy cars, refrigerators and iPhones. Now, like Americans after the devastating 2008 financial crisis, they face diminished livelihoods.A political crisis has compounded the economic troubles. President Dilma Rousseff was suspended in May for allegedly violating budget laws. She is awaiting a trial this month in Brazils Senate that will determine whether shell be permanently ousted.Business investment has been paralyzed by an investigation into corruption at the state-owned energy giant Petrobras. Once worth more in the stock market than either Microsoft or Wal-Mart, Petrobras has been reduced to selling assets -- from oil fields to corporate subsidiaries -- to raise cash to offset lower oil prices.The Olympics might be making things even worse. To prepare for the Games, the state of Rio spent heavily. When it ran into financial trouble, the federal government stepped in to help share the costs, thereby deepening the countrys budget woes.The Brazilian real has plunged 47 percent against the U.S. dollar since Rio was awarded the 16 Games in October 2009. The weak real makes imports costlier and helps escalate inflation, which was running at an annual 8.8 percent in June.High inflation means Brazils central bank cant slash interest rates to juice the economy for fear of sending inflation even higher. As a result, the central bank has kept its key rate at a punitive 14.25 percent.Nationally, since the end of 2014, more than 5 million people have lost jobs. Unemployment has nearly doubled to 11.3 percent.The anemic job market has depressed real estate. Gone are the bidding wars for choice apartments in Rios seaside neighborhoods. Office rents plunged 6.1 percent in Rio from the fourth quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016, making it the worlds third-worst office market in that period, according to the real estate firm JLL.Leo Ickowicz, who is Brazilian but has worked for two decades in South Florida real estate, has experienced the transformation. At the height of Brazils boom in 2010, when the economy grew a blazing 7.5 percent, many Brazilian clients sought to capitalize on the currencys strength to buy Miami real estate as an investment or vacation property.Now, his firm is busier than ever. Inquiries have quintupled. But his clients have a different goal this time: They want to leave Brazil for good. His company has had to add relocation services to meet the demand -- everything from help in applying for visas and selecting schools to offering psychological aid to families victimized by Brazils violent-crime epidemic.Despite the litany of bad news, the Brazilian stock market has surged 30 percent this year. Investors have detected signs of hope. Commodity prices have stabilized, and investors have expressed confidence in the economic policy team assembled by interim President Michel Temer, which says it will get government spending under control.The IMF has also slightly upgraded its outlook for Brazil, predicting that the economy will shrink 3.3 percent this year, compared with its earlier forecast of a 3.8 percent contraction, and will return to growth in 2017.Investors appeared heartened when the economy shrank just 0.3 in the first three months of 2016 from the fourth quarter of 2015. It was the best quarterly performance since the end of 2014.But the economy was still 5.4 percent smaller than it had been a year earlier. And May retail sales were down 9 percent from a year earlier.I dont see where growth is going to come from, says Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. People are still being fired. We do not know when the labor market is going to stabilize... I do not see anything coming from consumption.De Bolle says that while shes impressed with Temers economic team, she wonders whether it can get its plans for spending cuts through a dysfunctional National Congress.The overall situation is still extremely murky and very, very uncertain, she says.Bastos, the former car salesman, is trying to adjust.His wifes job at a construction company looks wobbly now that the massive buildout for the Olympics is drawing to an end. He has stopped shopping at the supermarket in his middle class neighborhood and now drives across the city only once a month to pick up necessities at a wholesale market.Family vacations? A distant memory. He thinks hell have to get used to a more modest lifestyle.This isnt something that we can fix in one or two years, Bastos says. Itll take Brazil at least 10 or 15 years to get back to where we were.---Wiseman reported from Washington.---Follow Paul Wiseman on Twitter at https://twitter.com/PaulWisemanAP Fake Air Max 97 Uk . Barcelonas entertaining victory ensured the defending Spanish champions retained their share of the league lead with Atletico Madrid two rounds ahead of their meeting in the capital. Real Madrid needed a late goal by substitute Jese Rodriguez to earn a 3-2 victory at Valencia to stay in third place and three points behind its title rivals. Fake Air Max 720 .ca NBA Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. http://www.fakeairmaxukoutlet.com/ . -- San Francisco 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks was fined $15,570 by the NFL on Wednesday for his hit on Saints quarterback Drew Brees last Sunday. Air Max Shop Uk . The news was first reported on Gonzalezs Twitter account and confirmed by the Rockies. Gonzalez has a six-week window before position players have their first workout at spring training in Arizona. Fake Air Max Trainers . A statement from the worlds top-ranked player says all checks "were satisfactory and showed positive evolution" regarding the injury, which contributed to his loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the final in Melbourne. International crickets future hangs in the balance this week. As a select group of senior administrators meet in Dubai to finalise a proposed model for radical changes to the games schedule, the players have warned of a massed exodus to Twenty20 leagues if nothing is done.An ICC working group of board chief executives, including the Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland, the ECBs Tom Harrison, the BCCIs Ajay Shirke, the PCBs Subhan Ahmed, South Africas Haroon Lorgat and New Zealands David White are working with ICC management to finalise proposals for a new international structure.The model will feature leagues for all formats of the international game with greater equity in terms of fixtures for all nations, with the aim of pooling television rights so that richer boards can subsidise weaker counterparts. The pathway for admission to the top of the international game will also be opened up, an attractive prospect for Associates like Ireland and Afghanistan.However, opposition to the prospect of two-tier Test cricket, championed by the Sri Lanka Cricket president Thilanga Sumathipala and latterly the BCCI president Anurag Thakur, now poses a significant danger to the adoption of the proposed changes. The BCCI has shown increasing belligerence over the past week, questioning funding levels for next years Champions Trophy in England and suggesting the ICC president Shashank Manohar is not serving Indias interests.ESPNcricinfo also understands that the BCCI have made known their opposition to the possibility of pooled television rights money. The BCCI has previously been able to control the ICC board table via the threat - either perceived or overt - of withdrawing its lucrative tours of other nations.On Monday, the players global body FICA stepped into this febrile environment, revealing that 72% of players quizzed for the bodys annual survey are in favour of the introduction of a divisional Test competition to add more meaning to each match. The FICA executive chairman Tony Irish urged the ICC Board to carefully consider the new model under consideration.To date, the issue that has been talked about most is Test cricket, Irish said, but we believe that this reviiew is about creating clear visions for all three formats of international cricket, and balancing them alongside the continued expansion and success of the various domestic T20 cricket leagues.dddddddddddd We know from our player surveys, and our engagement with players, that they are facing a conflict between international cricket and domestic T20 cricket leagues.This is a fundamental issue that we want any future structure of the game to address. Our concern is that if nothing is done, international cricket may very soon lose more and more of its best players to free agency and the T20 leagues.This re-structuring of international cricket should be about providing a better sporting product for fans, players and broadcasters. ICC management has done some excellent work on this, and we strongly encourage Member Boards to look beyond their own individual country interests in taking this forward. We understand that not everyone is in agreement over the divisional Test structure currently proposed, but this should not derail the entire process.Irishs views were echoed by a selection of international players, including Australias captain Steven Smith and South Africas leader AB de Villiers. We want our best players to be on the park as much as possible playing for our countries, Smith said, and at the moment that isnt always happening.Among other survey results, FICA found that 52% of all international respondents in the current structure still indicated that they would consider rejecting a national contract in favour of free agency in domestic T20 leagues.70% of all respondents think there should be ring fenced windows in the calendar for certain domestic T20 events to prevent clashes with international cricket.75% of all respondents think that closing the wage gap between domestic T20 and international cricket would help to retain players in international cricket.Discussions in Dubai this week are a precursor to the next round of official ICC meetings set down for October, after which the structural future of the game will become clear. ' ' '