Lo siento América Latina, este no es como el último superciclo de commodities…
Las economías de la región podrían recibir un impulso. Pero no esperemos un milagro
Sorry Latin America, This Is Not Like the Last Commodities Super-Cycle…
Regional economies may get a boost. But don’t expect a miracle either
Latin America Is Avoiding the Obvious Need for Reform. Why?
A fear of protests and a lack of external pressure have frozen political leaders so far.
No Region Left Behind: Has the recent financial crisis provided the necessary impetus for sovereign wealth in Latin America?
Has the financial crisis provided the push Latin America needs to expand sovereign wealth? For a while, it was possible to imagine that the region’s hard-won prosperity over the past decade, gained from harvesting the fruits of the earth from soya to copper had provided Latin America with a comfortable cushion in the form of … Read more
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