And if Brazil could be spared the fate that seems to loom, it would do emerging markets all over the world, not least elsewhere in Latin America, a power of good.

ECONOMIST: The emerging-market sickness is sizing up a new victim

But purely from a domestic point of view, it seems beyond odd that Warner Bros. seems to keep tempting fate by attempting to open expensive summer movies during a period where audiences have rejected their pictures in favor of the summer kick-off film again and again.

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Whether from natural catastrophes, economic collapse or the slow encroachments of sand or water, it seems likely that at least some of today's cities will meet the same fate as Ozymandias, the king of kings who built a monument to himself.

FORBES: Magazine Article