In The News

A Second Chance for Brazil and the I.M.F.

Joseph E. Stiglitz August 14, 2002
In this opinion piece, former World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz writes that the success—or failure—of the I.M.F. rescue package announced this past weekend will likely settle the fate of I.M.F., Brazil, and the rest of Latin America. The I.M.F.’s loan history is making many question the Fund’s latest package; a closer look at Brazil, however, may brighten one’s outlook. Sound monetary and...

Easing Its Stance, U.S. Offers Loans to Uruguay

Richard A. Oppel, Jr. August 5, 2002
Although the Bush administration has been reluctant to give aid to Latin American countries in financial crisis, it recently agreed to bail out Uruguay, a country with a traditionally stable economy. Uruguay has been hit particularly hard by the ripple effects of Argentina and Brazil’s economic crashes. On those countries’ problems, Washington has been ambiguous, and Treasury Secretary Paul O’...

A Step Forward

August 2, 2002
After a long period of intensive lobbying that spanned two administrations, President Bush won a key victory for his international trade platform when Congress granted him trade promotion authority. This authority means Congress must either accept or reject in full any international trade agreement the Bush administration proposes, rather than picking through it. But while this will certainly...

Latin America Turns Left

Richard Lapper July 28, 2002
As privatization, currency devaluation, and tight fiscal spending fail to solve Latin America’s economic woes, analysts see a leftward shift in the region’s politics. Leaders of well-known protests have cashed in their publicity for new political capital, as witnessed in recent elections. And long dead populist movements have been resurrected by the current frustration with free-market economics...

Net Users Try to Elude the Google Grasp

Jennifer Lee July 25, 2002
The stories about two people ‘meeting’ over the internet (and later falling in love) are countless and even old. Scandals and tragedies over personal information being disclosed without one’s approval, however, are beginning to alarm people. Search engines like Google and Altavista, portals through which over 3 billion pages can be accessed, yield thousands of results upon typing in a person’s...

Gephardt Is Preparing a Measure to Legalize Illegal Immigrants

Carl Hulse July 23, 2002
The United States is home to millions of illegal immigrants, many of them from Mexico, who have become a major chunk of the American labor force. Before September 11, President Bush talked with Mexican President Vicente Fox about the possibility of granting amnesty to some of those immigrants, but heightened concerns about national security have left that plan hanging. Democrats in the House of...

In Ecuador’s Banana Fields, Child Labor is Key to Profits

Juan Forero July 13, 2002
Banana, which was introduced to the New World by the Europeans in the 16th century, has become a staple export of Central America. Globalization of the banana market may have created more jobs for the poor, but the bulk of the earnings tend to go to the middlemen and giant retailers. As a New York Times front page report from Ecuador says, “Each 43-pound box of bananas purchased here by exporters...