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Review of 1997

Review of 1997Economic reforms in Argentina over the past few years have led to fast economic growth-a process that was interrupted in 1995 by a crisis in confidence fueled by Mexico’s currency devaluation in December 1994. But when economic agents realized that the convertibility system and economic reforms could be maintained, and that Argentine macroeconomic […]

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Riding out the storm

It seems as if Brazil’s capital markets are fending off attacks on all fronts these days. A recession at home and investor aversion to risky emerging markets are taking their toll. Meanwhile, an adverse tax regime, dwindling liquidity and a rash of companies leaving the stock exchange are sapping the confidence of markets and investors. […]

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Rocky Rebound

Yearly inflation rates of 80%, the currency down in value to 2.5 or even lower against the dollar, negative GDP, and noncompliance with International Monetary Fund goals. Such were the doomsday predictions for Brazil in 1999 following mid-January’s sharp devaluation of the real, which lost nearly 40% of its value. But eight months later, inflation […]

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Vaulting the Bluffs

Brazil’s big banks have developed an extraordinary ability to thrive in almost any environment.They have lived through inflation, government debt defaults and over half a dozen new currencies in the past 10 years. Even so, many international analysts and economists worried that January’s devaluation would devastate the country’s banks. After all, a brace of banks […]

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Visible Hand

Francisco da Costa e Silva, chairman of Brazil’s capital markets watchdog the Comissão de Valores Mobiliarios (CVM), has established himself as a leading promoter of regulatory changes and a modernizer of the capital market’s legal framework. But in this role he has clashed with powerful local and international groups. He has angered multinationals operating in […]

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Man of the Year: On the Brink

For Larry Summers, Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury, the first two months of 1995 passed as a blur of tense cross-border telephone calls, White House briefings and Capitol Hill negotiations. “(Mexican Finance Minister) Guillermo Ortiz and I spent so much time together that we came to recognize not just our wives’ voices but also our children’s voices,” said Summers, a key architect of the $50 billion rescue package that saved the Mexican economy. Summers’ role in the saga earned him LatinFinance’s 1996 Man of the Year title

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Man of the Year- On the Brink pt2

For Larry Summers, Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury, the first two months of 1995 passed as a blur of tense cross-border telephone calls, White House briefings and Capitol Hill negotiations. “(Mexican Finance Minister) Guillermo Ortiz and I spent so much time together that we came to recognize not just our wives’ voices but also our children’s voices,” said Summers, a key architect of the $50 billion rescue package that saved the Mexican economy. Summers’ role in the saga earned him LatinFinance’s 1996 Man of the Year title.

March 1996

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Easing the Crunch pt2

The year 1995 promises to be a difficult one for Mexico. Government, banks and corporations now face a number of challenges. Astronomical domestic interest rates and severely restricted capital inflows point to a serious recession in 1995, with effects to be felt throughout the Mexican economy

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