Monday, March 2, 2009 at 10:00 AM EST
Latin America and the Global Crisis
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A sign shows US President Barack Obama during a protest against job cuts and high interest rates outside the central bank in Sao Paulo on Jan. 21, 2009. Brazil's Labor Ministry says the country lost 654,000 jobs in December as the international financial crisis slammed Latin America's largest economy. (AP)
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President Barack Obama got his first economic intelligence briefing last week from new CIA chief Leon Panetta. And in the midst of all the talk about global crisis fueling global unrest, Latin America got a special mention.
Eastern Europe has had violent protests. Ukraine is on the global watch list. But Panetta told reporters he has been warned of economic instability in Latin America, and he named names: Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador. Is he right?
This hour, On Point: We’ll look at how the global economic meltdown is hitting Latin America.
You can join the conversation. Have you been following the crisis internationally? What are you hearing from friends and family to the south?
-Tom Ashbrook
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Hi Dr. D and future travelers...
ReplyDeleteThis is my first experience blogging through google so I hope it is a successful endeavor. I am certainly not up to date with the economic situations in the regions that were discussed; however, I can only imagine that these countries are feeling the weight of the economic crisis due to the decrease of tourism and drop in commodity prices. I once had a history teacher who said that studying history is like following the yellow brick road of commodities and luxury goods. I also think that a strong point was made by John Price when he mentioned Latin America's dependency on foreign markets and the situation of capital flight. I know this is true in Ecuador that when the currency switched to the dollar several wealthier ecuadorians placed their accounts abroad and also sent several of their children to universities overseas or in the USA. I wonder how the upcoming April elections will pan out for this country. When I was in Quito for a brief time a couple years ago I remember seeing several riots and strikes in the older part of town due to political unrest.
I noticed that several comments on the NPR site were referring to caller Graham's remarks. I didn't get the impression that the dialogue was one sided and reminiscent of Cold War tactics - on the contrary, I found it to be informative. Although Avila didn't say that Columbia might be facing as much peril as Argentina, Venezuela, and Ecuador, he did imply that times will tough for his country as well in the future if exports continue to be down and investment funds are not stabilized.
Whenever Mexico is mentioned in financial situation it seems as though someone always brings up the drug wars. I thought the response to this question was legitimate - that focus should be kept on the downturn of manufacturing as a warning sign and how that effects the border.
Congrats on you first post, Julie. I agree with the 'overshot' on the Cold War tactics. Although I did agree with the caller that thought the guests' comments were coming from a perspective of Western, free market-based capitalism. Whereas countries such as Ecuador are trying to find a 'third path' blending socialism with capitalim. It's an exciting time in South America. I see it in much less peril than was suggested in the piece. They may be the solution!
ReplyDeleteThere was a mention as well that several countries are coming up with more creative strategies to turn around their economies. Did i miss them actually explaining the creative strategies or did they just briefly touch on this?
ReplyDeleteI also found the part interesting about the decline of Latin American spending in Miami. Price's description about shopping and speaking Spanish vs. English was humorously interesting.