Politics, Business & Culture in the Americas
 

Ask the Experts: The Economic Crisis

Pamela Cox Answers: Beware of Losing Social Gains There is no clear road map out of the global financial crisis. Indeed, the main solution seems to be increased reliance on the state in ways unthinkable only a few years ago. The global financial crisis risks becoming a human and social crisis, eroding recent social gains … Read more

 

The Remittance Hole

For most of the last three decades, developing countries around the world have reaped a huge indirect benefit from the expanding global economy simply by exporting labor. According to official figures, migrant workers poured an estimated $283 billion back into their homelands in the form of remittances to relatives in 2008 alone, though the unofficial … Read more

 

Mexico’s Fragile Middle Class

Can Latin American governments tackle inequality in the midst of the global economic downturn? Although some countries—most notably Brazil and Chile—have made dramatic gains in reducing poverty and expanding the middle class, Latin America remains, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, one of the world’s most unequal regions. Inequality has deep roots in … Read more

 

Will Prudence Prevail?

Within two years of the Wall Street crash of 1929 there were military coups in seven Latin American countries, including Brazil and Argentina. The Great Depression that followed hit the region hard: ten countries saw the value of their exports fall by more than half between 1928 and 1932. (Chile’s total trade fell by no … Read more

 

Markets, States and Neighbors

Where will Latin America  be 25 years from now?  Most commentators, probably with good reason, prefer to focus on  muchshortertimeframes. But extending the time  horizon allows us to see larger trendsshaping the region beyond the volatile cycles of changes in government. From my perspective, the trends look  troublesome. Let’s start with economics. By  2034, Latin … Read more

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