Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

The private equity industry has plenty of detractors who see the funds as draining the

lifeblood of businesses and replacing it with debt. As more fragile firms go bust, we look

into private equity and ask how well it can weather the pandemic.

And the case of the missing mummies. Our correspondent got wind of a controversy

about some pretty old corpses. When he went to investigate, he found a bigger debate

about what's good for tourism and what's good for cultural heritage.

But first...

Yesterday Brazil had another record day of COVID-19 deaths. More than 1200 people died.

The country has the second highest number of cases in the world behind only America.

But Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, has downplayed the pandemic, railed against lockdowns

and flouted social distancing guidelines. What's more, at a moment when the death toll

is rising sharply, the country is starting to open up.

The situation here in Brazil is incredibly worrying. Mass graves are being dug in part

to the country. The intensive care units are filling up. Brazil has more than half a million

confirmed cases, but we really don't know the extent of it. A recent study concluded

that the caseload could be seven times the official number.

Sarah Maslin is our Brazil correspondent, based in São Paulo.

But the most striking thing for me is the real resistance Brazilians have shown to adhering

to social distancing from the very beginning. Part of that's because of poverty, which

makes it really hard for people to stay home. But it's also partly because of the mixed

...