The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday, September 18, that he has watched with "sadness" the collapse of Wall Street firms that made economic policy recommendations in emerging markets "as if they were the super intelligent and we were the poor souls."

"Important banks, very important banks, that spent their lives giving advice about Brazil and what we should or shouldn't do are now broke," news agency EFE quoted Lula da Silva as saying in a speech in southern Brazil.