Endnotes: Are We There Yet?

1. International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Update, January 28, 2009, <www.imf.org> (accessed March 6, 2009).

2. The region’s seven largest economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Perú, and Venezuela) account for over 90 percent of Latin America’s GDP.

3. In a recent article with which I very much coincide, Sebastián Edwards also blames the arrogance and dogmatism of market fundamentalists as important causes of the crisis. See Sebastián Edwards, “Al sur de la crisis,” Letras Libres, December 2008.

4. Martin Wolf, “Why dealing with the huge debt overhang is so hard,” Financial Times, January 27, 2009, <www.ft.com> (accessed March 6, 2009).

5. Guillermo Calvo, Alejandro Izquierdo and Ernesto Talvi, “Phoenix miracles in emerging markets: Recovering without credit from systemic financial crises,” NBER Working Paper 12101, Cambridge MA, May 2006, <http://www.nber.org/papers/w12101> (accessed March 6, 2009)

6. LASFRC Statement N° 19, December 2008, <www.claaf.org> (accessed March 6, 2009). LASFRC is also known by its Spanish acronym CLAAF, which stands for Comité Latinoamericano de Asuntos Financieros.

7. In line with this proposal, the Brazilian Central Bank has recently announced that it will use resources from the swap line established with the US Federal Reserve to assist private-sector companies in their external debt roll-over needs.