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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (89598)	2/17/2001 11:34:47 AM
From: Sam Citron	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

"[N]obody at Goldman Sachs was forced to suffer when Rubin engineered the Mexican bailout. Perhaps it was because of Rubin's ties to that firm." I am afraid I am missing your point. Kindly educate me. Was someone at Goldman Sachs responsible for Mexico's financial problems in 1994? If so, what did they do? Help syndicate loans to construct power plants and the like? OK, lets assume that Mexico's deteriorating financial condition in late 1994 threatened Mexico's ability to service its debt. So you therefore automatically assume that any rescue package is a vast conspiracy concocted by powerful NY bankers to perpetuate their own narrow interests and stay rich while everyone else struggles? I'm sorry but I don't buy that view of the world. It's much too simplistic. You suggest that the best answer to an impending international financial crisis is to do nothing lest an overzealous banker benefit. Don't you realize that the strongest advocates for intervention were the governors from the states along the Mexican border including George Bush? They realized that cross border trade would go down the drain if nothing was done to alleviate the crisis and their own states would bear the brunt of the impact. I would have thought that most investors on this thread would realize the crucial importance that world trade plays in the global economy to rich and poor nations alike. It's not a simple zero-sum game where the rich powerful North just exploits the powerless. Trade is a voluntary transaction which benefits all. Trading partners can not be simply allowed to fail. Where important policy measures or structural reforms need to be implemented you can be sure that bailouts will be conditional on such terms. I am not suggesting that the system is perfect, merely that the best system is the one that harnesses selfishness to serve the good of the entire community. Sam