May 21, 2014

The Philippines and Mexico: Emerging Markets? Think Again.

Foreign Policy in Focus, May 16, 2014.  
The Philippines and Mexico: Emerging Markets? Think Again.

Fellow columnist at FPIF Walden Bello, a prominent expert and critic of globalization, has written a fascinating article on Mexico and the Philippines as the new darlings of the international finance world. In the article he brilliantly summarizes the three phases of the global crisis and how these two countries have risen to stardom in the current phase of the crisis.

What we see is a the latest effort to create a self-fulfilling prophesy: by using Wall Street and Madison Avenue echo chambers, speculators hope to generate a climate that attracts investment so their fantastic predictions for these two "emerging economies" will come true.

Of course, as Walden points out, this requires hiding some pretty ugly facts about these nations' economies. Like massive poverty, inequality, crime and corruption. I talked about some of these myths regarding the enthusiasm for Mexico in a BBC article (in Portuguese) earlier this year. 

He concludes:
The aura that surrounds them [Mexico and the Philippines] at present reflects less the realities of their economies than the desperate fantasies of international finance capital and the partisans of a failed globalization.
Well worth a read.   Read the article here.

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