Aside from the millions of dollars in relief aid pouring into the hurricane-devastated region of Central America, economists still estimate that it will take years-and maybe even decades-for the economies of this seven-nation isthmus to recover from the damages of Hurricane Mitch. Inter-American Development Bank officials say Honduras, the hardest-hit nation, will […]
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Informal Benefits
In keeping with its reputation as a land of innumerable paradoxes, Mexico usually produces a silver lining to every kind of cloud-even when those clouds are laden with cement. In the current economic downturn, Mexican manufacturers of cement can point to one bright spot in what is known as the “informal” construction sector, or do-it-yourself […]
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Local Opportunities
With the international markets closed to Brazilian companies, well-known firms are turning to the internal markets to either roll over external positions or fatten their coffers in preparation for tough times ahead. Yet while this phenomenon has revived hopes of creating a more sophisticated debt market at home, the sudden blossoming of local debt issues […]
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No Place Like Home (building)
It may sound like Dorothy’s refrain from the “Wizard of Oz,” but when it comes to Mexico’s construction industry right now, there is clearly “no place like home.” That is to say, there’s no better-placed niche than homebuilding in the midst of an economic downturn-and it doesn’t take a wizard to figure out why. Company […]
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Of Dismissals and Resignations
Rare is the emerging markets division of any large investment bank that hasn’t been nearly gutted of staff. Along Wall Street and in other financial centers around the world, in the aftermath of lousy third quarter results, thousands of underwriters and analysts have lost their jobs or resigned, giving new meaning to the word tombstone. […]
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Really Got a Hold on You
In the savage conditions of Latin America’s current market malaise, there is one law of the jungle that certainly prevails: The strongest will survive. At least, that’s the basis of the recommendations coming from equity and fixed-income analysts that investors hold onto their positions in blue-chip construction and cement companies until market conditions improve. In […]
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Ringing Out a Good Year
El Salvador’s scheduled date to sell its state-run telecommunications company in July couldn’t have come at a worse time: not only were world financial markets reeling from investor jitters over emerging markets, but the much-anticipated privatization of Brazil’s massive state-owned telecom company, Telebras, was just a few days away and capturing much of the limelight. […]
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Seeing the Light
Blackouts and energy rationing may finally become a thing of the past in Central America as governments continue to open up their countries’ electricity industries to the private sector. These changes mean that for the first time in its history, Central America may soon be able to meet its population’s soaring demand for electricity, which […]
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Silver Bullet?
David Mulford As former US Treasury Undersecretary and Assistant Secretary for International Affairs from 1984-1992, David Mulford is credited with having been the chief architect of the fabled Brady Plan, the program that carries the name of former US Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady and which used market mechanisms to provide a global solution […]
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Sovereign Bonds
Although the Uruguay River is the only thing that physically separates Brazil from Argentina at one point, financially speaking the two countries have been worlds apart. Brazil has been struggling to entice international investors while Argentina has managed to re-open the market on several fronts. Underscoring this difference is the fact that by the end […]