In Review
The Mexican Rescue by Joseph Kraft. Group of Thirty, 66 pp. $15 (paper). Joseph Kraft, a nationally syndicated columnist and regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine, is the author...
...This book synthesizes these studies and is complemented by information from parallel projects conducted by the World Bank...
...As channels to international trade and finance began to close down following the 1929 crash, many Latin American nations recovered through an import-substitution scheme...
...International Labour Office, 207 pp...
...This group of authors argues that several Latin American economies performed particularly well during the early crisis years, especially in comparison to North America...
...In this comprehensive study, Rhys Jenkins illustrates shortcomings in all three positions...
...30 Swiss Francs, (paper...
...government and international affairs...
...The authors conclude that Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has not been able to achieve social transformation and growth with equity and political stability...
...27.95 (cloth...
...Equally i2 REPORT ON THE AMERICAS mixed were the interpretations of the experts...
...Cambridge University Press, 255 pp...
...The conference participants represented major international lending institutions, research centers and universities of North and South America...
...The Political Economy of Income Distribution in Mexico edited by Pedro Aspd and Paul E. Sigmund...
...Latin America in the 1930s: The Role of the Periphery in World Crisis edited by Rosemary Thorp...
...Transnational Corporations and Industrial Transformation in Latin America by Rhys Jenkins...
...17.50 (paper...
...Thomas Trebat has written a systematic analysis of the performance of Brazil's state-owned enterprises in petrochemicals, steel, electricity and telecommunications...
...In May 1982, the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Office of the World Bank convened a conference to review the recent economic experiences of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, each of which had adopted what is here termed "the monetary approach to the balance of payments...
...In 1977, 36% of Mexican families, 22 million people, were living below the national poverty line...
...We walked in through the front door...
...Mexican agriculture has stagnated since the mid-1960s...
...Trebat argues that the Brazilian economy's large-scale production capacity and the government's supervision of the firms have been key to this success...
...But while there are certain parallels between the continent's current role in the world economy and its position in the years preceding World War II, these carefully argued essays emphasize the differences between the two periods, rejecting superficial comparisons...
...The theoretic validity, internal consistency and social costs of the applied programs are still hotly debated...
...Commercial banks became the main channel for the transfer of capital from the North to the South during the 1970s...
...And for the most part, these presentations are in strictly balance-of-payments terms, ignoring political and social components...
...Brazil's State-Owned Enterprises: A Case Study of the State as Entrepreneur by Thomas J. Trebat...
...But today there are no opportunities for rapid recovery, and countries are now looking to expand existing exports rather than diversify their industrial base...
...25 (cloth...
...Cambridge University Press, 287 pp...
...Kraft has taken the journalist's route in tracing the story behind Mexico's traumatic ultimatum to the world banking community in 1982, presenting the issue in the words of key participants...
...The closing chapters look at possible distribution alternatives, based on a number of studies undertaken by the ILO...
...an examination of the demographics of income inequality follows...
...Joseph Kraft, a nationally syndicated columnist and regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine, is the author of several books on U.S...
...Uncertain Future: Commercial Banks and the Third World edited by Richard E. Feinberg and Valeriana Kallab...
...Overseas Development Council/Transaction Books, 124 pp...
...There were considerable variations in the three nations' policies, and very mixed results...
...Planning the Mexican Economy: Alternative Development Strategies by Jorge Buzaglo...
...85 (cloth...
...However, the real test will be if public enterprise performance can withstand Brazil's current crisis...
...He concludes with case studies on the automotive industry and pharmaceuticals, with sections on the internationalization of capital and class structure...
...Kraft's depiction of the impact of Mexico's actions is fascinating and highly readable--especially for laypeople...
...According to Buzaglo, oil-led development strategies can create a number of long-term problems for Third World nations...
...Buzaglo considers how an expansion in oil production could alleviate, or exacerbate, development in the non-industrial sectors...
...The Role of the International Financial Centres in Underdeveloped Countries by Xabier Gorostiaga...
...This study is an extended look at the role and function of financial centers in the world economy, with Panama as a key example...
...and proposals for a reformed lending framework encompassing credit and improved data collection...
...Income Distribution and Economic Development: An Analytical Survey by Lescaillon, Paukert, Morrisson and Germidis...
...The director of Mexico's Department of Public Credit perhaps describes the bombshell best, "We didn't crawl to the international financial community as debtors seeking relief through some minor adjustment that could be made backstage...
...In this volume, the Council has collected essays covering: the politics and diplomacy of bank lending...
...In 1976 he began a study of the impact of the international financial centers on local economic structures in Panama as part of a doctoral thesis in economics at Cambridge University...
...The World Bank, 163 pp...
...We said it was everybody's problem...
...Agriculture generally suffers most, and agriculture is precisely the sector where development problems tend to be the most serious...
...The author also looks at the political implications of developments in international finance, and the U.S...
...Latin American nations receiving special focus in this pan-Third World study are: Chile, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Panama...
...27.50 (cloth...
...Holmes & Meier, 542 pp...
...The Overseas Development Council is an independent, non-profit organization founded in 1969 to promote awareness of the economic and social problems confronting the developing nations...
...He also explores the historical and geopolitical backgrounds of these host nations which make them ideal operating bases...
...In this book, Buzaglo looks at Mexico's oil-based development and its effects on agriculture and the rest of the economy...
...They have also performed better than many of their counterparts in the developing nations...
...The essays in this volume examine the impact of public policy upon the distribution of income in Mexico...
...Treasury Department's ineptitude in foreseeing Mexico's most apparent financial crisis...
...Outright default seems unlikely, but an intensified conflict between the creditor and debtor nations seems imminent, unless corrective measures are implemented in the near future...
...In the 1950s and 1960s, "developmentalism" touted the benefits of direct foreign investment for Latin America's growing manufacturing sector...
...He plots the manoeuvres required in negotiating with the lending institutions, commercial banks, national governments and dozens of extremely powerful personalities...
...Private enterprise is actively encouraged in Brazil, and the state-owned enterprises have served primarily as a catalyst to economic growth, at least through the early 1980s-and they have grown rapidly relative to the private firms...
...Martin's Press, 306 pp...
...We said we had a major problem with a capital P. We didn't say the problem was a particular debt...
...Latin America is now facing its most severe "adjustment" crisis since the 1930s...
...42.50 (cloth...
...12.95 (paper...
...Martin's Press, 139 pp...
...But in the current external debt crisis, higher interest rates are draining Latin American nations of badly needed development just as new MARCHIAPRIL 1985 11 MARCH/APRIL 1985 11bank lending is tapering off...
...As a consequence, "redistribution in Mexico in recent decades . . . has benefitted the middle sectors at the expense of" the marginalized sectors...
...Taking the criticism further, dependency theorists pointed to a new and greater form of dependency in which significant sectors of industry fell under the control of the transnationals...
...Opening chapters provide a structural analysis of income distribution...
...Martin's Press, 338 pp...
...No matter how quickly the gross national product grows, a nation cannot be said to have made progress if its population does not benefit from a corresponding increase in income...
...Gorostiaga analyzes the structural causes that have given rise to the centers in various developing countries, their function and operating mechanisms and impact on the zones in which they operate...
...Rural poverty, migration to the cities, urban unemployment and underemployment are the usual results, along with higher food prices, inflation and increasing dependence on food imports...
...Economic Liberalization and Stabilization Policies in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay: Applications of the Monetary Approach to the Balance of Payments edited by Barletta, Blejer and Landau...
...The authors of these essays-academics from prestigious international institutions, Carlos Diaz Alejandro among them-present an integrated view of the two most important periods in Latin America's modern economic history...
...32.50 (cloth...
...Programs designed specifically to effect a more equal distribution of wealth, have by-passed the traditional and rural sectors...
...Xabier Gorostiaga is director and founder of the Institute of Socio-Economic Research (INIES) in Managua...
...the changing relationship between the banks, the IMF and the World Bank...
...the poor are getting poorer...
...We said the problem was the whole international financial structure...
...The ILO has conducted over 100 studies on economic development visA-vis employment throughout the Third World and on the distribution between rich and poor...
...Income distribution is extremely inequitable...
...By the late 1960s, economic nationalism was on the rise throughout the region, and the tide turned against foreign investors...
Vol. 19 • March 1985 • No. 2
