The original version of my post Obama Vows To Veto Tax Cut For The Wealthy, brought out howls of complaint from one reader.
The reader wrote “When I read the last line, I got pissed at the post. I felt betrayed.” That’s the part of his email that I can safely quote on this family oriented blog.
Warning! Spoiler Alert, for those reading And The Money Kept Rolling In (And Out): The World Bank, Wall-Street, The IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina.
Paul Blustein, the author of the book, ends Chapter 9
These concerns would be less pressing, of course, if Argentina were sui generis, its crash a unique “perfect storm” reflecting a confluence of events unlikely to occur anywhere else in the world for decades, Was it?
He answers that question in Chapter 10.
REST EASY, because Argentine-type bubbles are not about to materialize elsewhere. Markets have a marvelous capacity to self-correct, and Argentina’s default chastened international investors and lenders so severely that they have demonstrated a new level of sobriety in their approach to emerging-market countries. This caution on the part of global-market players should reassure the world that there is no longer much reason to worry about global markets pumping up the economies of developing nations to the point of intemperance.
Unfortunately, the preceding paragraph is a laughable fantasy. By late 2003, investors’ eagerness to roll the dice in emerging markets was reaching levels not seen since the Asian crises of 1997, causing much unease among policymakers and expert observers. “Is this another bubble?” the Financial Times fretted in an editorial January 16, 2004. The newspaper’s use of the B-word was justified, and was being echoed elsewhere.
This book was first published in 2005. Obviously the author was unaware of what would happen in 2008 and 2009 that would make his description of the laughable fantasy even more true that when he wrote it.
Notice the use of the literary device that my reader felt was a betrayal when I used it. This is the book recommended to me by said offended reader.