"The Debt Crisis as "Opportunity

Strategies to Revive U.S. Hegemony

Bibliographic Data

ID4499797
AuthorsJoy M Cypher (0000-0002-9047-5311, corresponding author), James M Cypher
Year1989
Volume16
Issue1
Pages52-78
Publication date1989-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x8901600104
OpenAlexW2048670356
LanguageEN
Citations received8

As Latin America's worst economic crisis, which began in 1982, entered its seventh year, it seemed certain to deepen as the two giants of the region, Brazil and Mexico, tightened their embrace of austerity plans and free market solutions. Such solutions hinged-upon the successful implementation of new programs designed to expand Latin America's export capacity. But these programs, which had been so ruthlessly pursued by several Latin American governments, now had to confront a new wave of protectionism best signified by the U.S. job protection, that Congress forced on Reagan's administration (Kilborn, 1988: 1, 30). Individually and collectively the Latin American nations have been overwhelmed by the crisis and incapable of mitigating even its worst effects. Yet the ravages of the crisis have been unevenly felt since the elite of Latin America have been able to protect their interests and in some cases expand their wealth and power through (1) capital flight, (2) adroit maneuvers in the financial realm during bouts of hyperinflation, and (3) the deployment of austerity programs that basically lower the incomes of peasants, workers, and middle-class technocrats. While the Latin American nations have done little to mitigate and much to further the disarticulation of their productive apparatuses, the United States has pursued a strategy throughout the crisis designed to regain lost power over the Third World in general and Latin America in particular. It is the purpose of this article to discuss the nature and magnitude of the U.S. economic offensive against Latin America while fully realizing that the final outcome of the present heightened rivalry could be very far from that sought by U.S. policymakers. A crisis is both a period of seeming (and real) chaos and danger and potentially a period of opportunity. In what follows we seek to demonstrate the several ways

Austerity · Debt · Debt crisis · Development economics · Economics · Financial crisis · Latin Americans · Political science · Politics · Economic Theory and Policy · Finance · Global Financial Crisis and Policies · Law

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