We usually think of "futbol," beaches, and samba when it come to Brazil.  Most Americans know about Rio's beautiful beaches, but few understand that Brazil is a U.S. $2.4-trillion GDP, or top 10 in the world.   

It exports a lot to the U.S., from clothing to aircrafts. 

It is the economic powerhouse of South America because of its size but an underachiever on GDP growth.   

It ranks as the 114^th freest economy in the world in The Index of Economic Freedom:

Brazil had advanced into the ranks of the “moderately free” economies in the Index during the first half of the 2000s, but since 2007, the economy has fallen back to the status of “mostly unfree.” The lack of progress toward greater economic freedom has discouraged private-sector growth and continues to undermine realization of the economy’s full potential.

It is a rich country with huge pockets of poverty.  It is a nation of contrasts!

On Sunday, we will have a "right vs. left" election, and it's too close to call.

The right is represented by challenger Aecio Neves, a former governor and businessman from a political family.  The left is represented by the incumbent Workers’ Party candidate Dilma Rousseff.

Brazil has three chief problems:  corruption, a slow economy, and violence.  It's the corruption that's really hurting the incumbent Workers' Party.

Mr. Neves is running a "Jack Kemp" campaign for president:

The main proposals of the Neves campaign are tax reform, political reform and an orthodox macroeconomic agenda rather than Dilma’s agenda of temporary macroprudential measures designed to lower taxes short-term and weaken the currency to help exporters.

Mr Neves's victory would be a huge boost for the free-market forces in Latin America.  It would be a huge loss for the Chavez wing and its disciples in Bolivia and Argentina.

Mr. Neves also wants to join the Pacific Alliance and start doing more business with that region.

The polls are too close to call.  We caution you that the Workers' Party has a good ground game and will get its voters to the polls.  Mr. Neves is hoping that the middle class shows up and expresses its anger with taxation and corruption on Sunday.

Again, it's too close to call.  However, somewhere up in heaven Jack Kemp must be cheering for Mr. Neves!  A Neves victory would vindicate everything that Jack Kemp used to tell us about.

P.S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.