Rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgrade last week of Brazil’s sovereign rating to the non-investment or “junk” category is a wake-up call for the country to correct its finances and build the political consensus to achieve that. Brazil is facing a severe recession, and its economy is expected to shrink by 3% this year and again in 2016, before returning to modest growth by 2017, according to S&P. It does not help that an economic slowdown is also underway in China, Brazil’s main trading partner, hurting the latter’s exports to that country. Meanwhile, Brazil is wracked by corruption scandals involving senior politicians that threaten the stability of the government of President Dilma Rousseff, who is now in her second term. Despite those headwinds, experts feel Brazil still has time to correct its course, restore confidence among investors and lenders and avert another, potentially devastating downgrade. “The junk rating is a big warning … [and] a big red flag,” said L.…