Reply #7: On Free Speech TV yesterday I saw an interview with a couple [View All]

from Bolivia. They said that after globalization inflation was at 24,000%. Money was worthless and instead of counting money it was WEIGHED. People were taking wheel barrows full of money that wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. With the US being the worlds biggest debtor, we probably aren't far away from austerity measures in this country, although the corporate press does NOT report this.

This article from May 2001 explains the effect of globalization on Latin America.

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...In 1985, before neo-liberal reforms, Bolivia was battered by a global recession, falling exports and tumbling tin prices. The economy had spun out of control; annual inflation hit 24,000%. Since reforms were introduced, inflation has been reduced to 5%, the annual growth rate over the past decade has averaged 3% to 4% and exports—once dominated by minerals—now include agricultural and manufactured products.

But, as in other Latin American nations, economic reforms have also brought pain. Unemployment and poverty rose as government downsized and local businesses failed, while elimination of price controls and austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made life harder by the minute. Money once earmarked for social programs now goes to balance budgets and pay foreign debt.

The privatization of nearly all state companies led to thousands of layoffs in Bolivia, where more than 60% of the 8 million inhabitants live in poverty. “It is ridiculous to put the same neo-liberal policies used in Chile in a country like Bolivia, which is much poorer,” says Arturo León, an adviser for the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Eliahu Kreiss, the former IMF representative in Bolivia, argues that long-term structural poverty is the problem. He says IMF policies seek to repair the economy so that Bolivia can repay future loans. “You have to assume that if a country comes to us and says they can't pay their debt then something is wrong with the policies that they are following,” Kreiss says.

http://www.latintrade.com/newsite/content/archives.cfm?StoryID=1255