Article Artículo
Consumers Are Spending, Cash in Checking Accounts Means Alternative Investments Are Not GoodDean Baker / July 19, 2014
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When It Comes to Infrastructure "Vast" Ain't What It Used to BeDean Baker / July 19, 2014
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Latin America and the Caribbean
Future of WTO Negotiations Hangs in the Balance at G20 Trade Ministers’ MeetingDeborah James / July 19, 2014
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Latin America and the Caribbean
The Courts Go Medieval on ArgentinaDean Baker
Al Jazeera America, July 22, 2014
Dean Baker / July 18, 2014
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Latin America and the Caribbean
The Problem with the Venezuela Sanctions DebateCEPR and / July 18, 2014
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Labor Market Policy Research Reports, June 8 – July 17The following reports on labor market policy were recently released:
CEPR and / July 18, 2014
Article Artículo
Sanctions Against Iran Lose the U.S. More than 40 Percent of the Exports Supported by the Export-Import BankDean Baker / July 18, 2014
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Latin America and the Caribbean
BRICS’ New Financial Institutions Could Break a Long-Standing and Harmful MonopolyMark Weisbrot / July 18, 2014
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On its Fourth Anniversary, Has Dodd-Frank Begun to Bite?Eileen Appelbaum / July 17, 2014
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Latin America and the Caribbean
NAFTA Advocates Continue to Make Misleading ClaimsIn an effort to defend NAFTA and promote similar agreements, the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) – Washington’s most influential think tank on international economic policy – had a full day of events yesterday. The program highlighted one of their recent publications [pdf], which seeks “not to rehash old claims that may have been overstated but to clear the air so that the benefits and challenges of trade can be examined in an objective light.” In spite of this disclaimer, the authors grossly overstated the benefits of NAFTA for Mexico, and put forward a number of misleading claims, including a particularly egregious bait-and-switch used to justify a rant against the economic policies of the “Andean-3” aka Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. It is a good example of how ideology can trump facts when it comes to commercial agreements made in Washington.
Earlier this year, CEPR published a paper giving an overview of the Mexican economy in the NAFTA era (“Did NAFTA Help Mexico? An Assessment After 20 Years”), so I will focus here on the claims made about Mexico by the PIIE economists. In terms of their bottom line for Mexico, the authors’ findings concur with our conclusions. They say that “Mexican growth in the NAFTA era has been disappointing.” But they also argue that without NAFTA Mexico’s economy would be $170 billion smaller. In other words, they attribute half of Mexico’s (per capita) growth rate to trade in goods and services stimulated by NAFTA (see table below.) Given Mexico’s population (about 118 million), this amounts to a payoff of $1,441 per person, or about $4 per day. In a country where over 27 percent of the population lives on less than $4 a day – in rural areas it is over 48 percent of the population – this would be very significant. In reality, results such as these are produced by economic models that are highly sensitive to parameters which the researchers themselves determine, so it is easy to end up with results that corroborate one’s worldview.
CEPR and / July 16, 2014
Article Artículo
Private Equity at Work: CalPERS Private Equity Returns: Good, But Not Good EnoughEileen Appelbaum / July 16, 2014
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Free Trade: The Answer to the Question of "How do you pay for a drug that costs $84,000?"Dean Baker / July 16, 2014
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President Obama Wants to Spend $302 Billion on Transportation Over the Next Four YearsDean Baker / July 16, 2014
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Taxpayer Subsidy to Former Hospital CEO Is Equal to 16,800 Months of Food StampsDean Baker / July 16, 2014
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Latin America and the Caribbean
Child Labor is Part of Problem of Global Race to BottomMark Weisbrot
Room for Debate (The New York Times), July 16, 2014
Mark Weisbrot / July 16, 2014