Thursday, October 2, 2008

Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide: "Latin America Economic Boom Threatened as Credit Freeze Deepens"

In May MarketBeat had a post "Latin American Debt No Longer Scares Investors" which got a little back-and-forth going in the peanut gallery:
Comments

See:
Barings, 1890.

Comment by Climateer - May 12, 2008 at 12:25 pm

“Barings, 1890″? Is this the best you people can come up with?

Comment by Joaozinho - May 12, 2008 at 12:59 pm

See:
Chavez, 2008.

Comment by Climateer - May 12, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Oh please Climateer… it’s easy to tell crap about latinamerica if you own the casino, right?
US should look at how latinamerica has been stabilizing in the last 7 years, with stronger economies and models that differ a lot from what’s been suggested by the IMF and Washington for ages, that’s why now you see crisis in Argentina that are related to wealth distribution… Nice job latinamerica.

Comment by El Macho Porteño - May 12, 2008 at 3:54 pm

I did like De Soto’s
“El Otro Sendero”

Comment by Climateer - May 12, 2008 at 4:34 pm

Macho Porteño, you are mixing the trees with the forest in your argument and engaging in typical US bashing that is empty and fails to address properly the accomlishments and the the failures of the many covernments and people in the region. There are countries in the region that look to and plan for the future while others are stuck in the past and try to implement once again failed policies. Countries like Chile, Brazil, Peru and Colombia are looked at in the US as having adopted models from which other countries in the Americas can learn … even the US. Then, there are countries like Argentina, Venezuela and Bolivia that are going a different way. In Argentina the government and the peronistas choose to keep the economy close, scare away foreign investment, keep labor markets inflexible, and grow their political machine at the expense of the nation’s future. In Venezuela and Bolivia socialist policies that promise much and deliver little are emptying the promise and coffers of the countries, and are endangering their ability to exploit usefully their natural resources. Neither the US nor the IMF are to blame for the political choices of the countries that are not moving forward. The nations of Argentina, Venezuela and Bolivia condemn themselves to a dark future by living in the past and clinging on to failed policies from the 60s and 70s.

Comment by US Porteño - May 13, 2008 at 11:44 am

No Longer Scares Investors??

Are You referring to the 30000 M$ bonds argentina deleted from its balance sheet?
Ecuador now is flirting with default on its bonds so far, Venezuela will be the next!

Comment by B - May 13, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Today Bloomberg reports:
Latin America's fastest economic expansion in 30 years may be coming to an end as the global credit crunch stunts investment and squeezes demand for the region's commodities.

``We're in a serious economic crisis,'' Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos said in an interview in his Bogota office. ``Financing is going to get scarcer and scarcer, and that means that investment is going to be difficult to attract.''

The region's growth in 2009 may be cut to less than 3.3 percent, from 4.6 percent this year, according to economists at Barclays Capital. The slowdown will make it harder to further reduce poverty that's fallen to its lowest levels since before the ``Lost Decade'' of the 1980s in which countries borrowed more than they could repay.

The crisis will test Latin America's decade-old commitment to debt reduction and open markets. Mexico this week shelved plans to privatize an airport, citing the U.S. crisis, while Costa Rican President Oscar Arias warned the country's growth rate may halve as investment drops. In Brazil, lending that has powered the country's fastest expansion in more than a decade is drying up, said Ricardo Espirito Santo, head of the Brazilian unit of Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo SA.

``The last four or five years were very good for Latin America, but that cycle is coming to an end,'' said Rodrigo Valdes, chief Latin America economist at Barclays Capital in New York. ``We expect a deceleration in practically all economies.''

Cutting Forecast...MORE