The IMF and World Bank providing loans to impoverished and financially unstable countries is not only irresponsible, it's unethical. I intend to use the example of the loans provided to Mexico during the Mexican peso crisis, also called the Tequila crisis or December mistake crisis to illustrate this, and then provide what I believe would be a better solution
On January 1st, 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement became effective. This, along with the Mexican peso having an exchange rate pinned to the US dollar and low interest rates in the United States provided the Mexican government and Mexican businesses with access to foreign investors who we eager to invest. Joseph A. Whitt, Jr. details the events as “the Mexican government devalued the peso. The financial crisis that followed cut the peso's value in half, sent inflation soaring and set off a severe recession in Mexico” (Whitt, 1996, p. 1). Two days later, “On the morning of December 22nd, the government announced that it was abandoning the exchange rate target band and allowing the peso to float” (Whitt, 1996, p. 14).
During the previous year, the Mexican government was
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I do agree with pushing for economic reform, especially with policies that would help to control inflation and reduce the deficit. However, I don't agree that aid should be in the form of loans. IMF and the World Bank should provide grants in exchange for economic policies, and only after the policies have been in place for a period of time. Dave Ramsey (n.d.) says that “you can't borrow your way out of debt”, and while this was in reference to personal finance, I believe that it also rings true on a larger scale as well. If the Mexican government was not spending so much of its' income on paying off debt, it would have had more money available for infrastructure or social projects, and may not have needed to dip into its'
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted in November of 1993 with aims to facilitate the free flow of goods, services and labor between the United States, Canada and Mexico. The ratification of NAFTA created the world’s largest free market with roughly 390 million consumers and an estimated total output of $8.6 trillion. Clearly, this trade alliance has had a major influence on the financial service industries of the participating nations and will continue to do so in the future. However, the financial service provisions of NAFTA will have sufficiently greater implications for Mexico than either the United States or Canada. This is in part because Mexico is embarking upon a greater shift towards openness in its
Some background facts about Mexico: The place of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came under Spanish rule for three centuries before achieving independence early in the 19th century. A devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over half a century. The nation continues to make an impressive recovery. Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income
In modern times the peso has endured more or less stable against the US dollar and other major worldwide currencies. Although the peso has come under pressure from international recession that is becoming obvious in Europe, One thing that is apparent from making a approximate study of the historical information is that the strength of a currency has a direct relationship with the strength of the economy. As is apparent from the economic disaster experienced by Mexico, during the 1970s and 1980s, which is why the Mexican peso is experiencing distress. As most of the Mexican economy produces its income from exports therefore, it is suffering from a deepening crisis in the global market. On the positive side, the future of the Mexican peso is
Introduction The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, implemented in1994, is a trilateral agreement which helps facilitate trade between the three countries of North America; the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The agreement has transformed the bilateral relations between the United states and Mexico in many regards. Since NAFTA came into effect, the United States has become Mexico’s main trading partner considering that 88 percent of Mexico’s exports and 56 percent of their imports go to the United States (U.S.). The new relationship between the U.S. and Mexico’s economy was foreseen by the creators of NAFTA. However, an entirely unforeseen factor that affected both countries was the dramatic increase
It is known that he believes NAFTA is one of the leading causes of America’s downfall. To counteract that, Trump has proposed to change NAFTA and make it better. The idea of changing the agreement has made Mexico’s currency become very volatile because there is uncertainty on what will happen if Trump gets elected. The NAFTA has led to a better business relationship between Canada, the US and Mexico; however, a sudden change in how the new president will perceive the NAFTA agreement will affect the currency rate for Mexico and the United States. Companies who have locked their exchange rates during trade agreements that become affected as the rates continue to fluctuate. Trade wars may occur making the future unpredictable for the companies. When this happens, companies will have to slow down and hold more capital to protect themselves from potential losses. With limited growth and a willingness to expand, the stock market will slow to a halt if there are no impressive milestones to be shown to potential the investors. With more companies trying to hold on to capital, their plan is to “have a case cushion” when Trump is elected, which will inevitably going to lead to slow growth across many
Over 75 years later, we still do not have the freedoms President Roosevelt wished upon us. A specific freedom that still does not exist is “economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants.” There are still dozens of poverty stricken countries, known as Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). These are countries that have a national debt that is unmanageable with traditional manners alone. The good news is that the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative began in 1996 to address this issue. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMC), and other creditors teamed up to reduce the debt of 36 countries that met strict criteria.
Something evident due to the fact that the mexican peso has devalued to 65.15% against the dollar since the beginning of Peña Nieto’s term. A big downfall compared to the administration of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and Vicente Fox Quesada, Mexico’s previous presidents. Many things have caused this, but the most recent and impactful event was when Donald Trump won the election. Trump’s views on illegal immigration and his stance on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA really shook the mexican peso out of control. This to the point of breaking the unnerving barrier of 20 pesos per dollar. To put this into perspective, when I was about twelve years old a dollar was worth ten pesos. This severely affected the mexican people and many daily necessities would increase in price. The bus and metro prices would increase by 20% severely affecting many of the working class. Groceries and other goods would also increase in price. Even though Peña Nieto has lowered unemployment, his inadequate handling of our currency has left many mexicans unhappy. Some even losing their
The Mexican Peso Crisis can be traced to the decision of then president Zedillo’s decision to reverse the government’s then policy that imposes tight controls on the Mexican Peso. This decision is considered by critics as an important factor that led to the Mexican Peso Crisis
Because of the oil boom, foreign investment continued to pour into Mexico, but the economy was beginning to teeter on the brink of collapse. The peso was devalued three more times between 1976 and 1982. Current accounts drew even further out of balance, and overall foreign debt rose enormously during this six-year period,
No other countries economy is impacted as severely as Mexico based on the financial outlook of the United States. The US economy, government and election process controls the direction of the Mexican peso. This is obviously the case of the dog wagging the tail.
Now it must be mentioned that Maduro, instead of changing tack upon the death of Chavez, doubled-down on the latter’s policies and, in many cases, initiated economic policies that have further exasperated the crisis. As a result of having depleting government reserves, Maduro slashed imports including basic good like groceries and medical supplies – this was done in order to avoid having to default on foreign debt. Moreover, Maduro also made the grave mistake of responding to the impending crisis by printing money, which has caused inflation to skyrocket and exasperated the situation even further by making basic goods unaffordable. These policies coupled together have led to food shortages which have even led to food riots. While the economic policies of Chavez created the current crisis, those of Maduro has made the crisis far worse. The two men, quite simply, personified economic populism, relying on “the creation of a material base for the public’s support and the distribution of favors to constituents,” all whilst paying little heed to financial constraints (Cordova Cazar and Lopez-Bermudez 2009,
The year 1994 marks the final year of Carlos Salinas de Gotari’s administration in Mexico. In order to boost the popularity of the party in hope of garnering more votes, Salinas went a high spending splurge which led to high deficits. Mexico’s trade deficit further deteriorated due to trade liberalization through the participation in North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1992, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Trade Agreement (WTA) in 1994. Fuelled by the overvalued peso and trade liberalization, Mexico was importing at a rate much faster than it could, leading to rising trade deficits.
To begin, Latin America is indeed one of the most poor regions in the world. Due to bad leaders, poverty, natural disasters and debt this region is facing a lot of problems due to unsustainability. The problem that seems most sensible to fix is debt. Debt by definition is something typically money that is owed or borrowed. In Latin American’s case the problem is that they borrowed to much money; that in the end was supposed to be payed off but wasn’t. This problem continued when Latin America borrowed money from other countries to repay the US, yet the money unfortunately just kept adding up.
Many people would agree that it is not right for the third world countries to be paying debts that they aren’t able to pay for. They would have to give up pretty much everything to try and pay the
Answer2: Just like coin has two sides this movement to cancel growing debt owed to the IMF have both positive and negative aspects. Many poor countries are buried under IMF debt. Debt cancellation will help countries to alleviate poverty in short run. Furthermore instead of paying billion of dollar in debt these countries can spend this money on health, education and infrastructure which will