Argentina, the IMF, and the WTO
In 1999, over 40,000 people came to protest in the streets outside the Seattle Conference Center, where the delegates from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came to Seattle to discuss new international trade agreements. Many came to protest not only against the WTO and the IMF, but also against globalization itself; Thousands were protesting for anti-globalization because of increasing concerns that certain trade and investment measures were encroaching on national sovereignty. Everyone feared that too much power was being centralized into organizations like the WTO and the IMF. Other reasons included the widening gap between the rich and the poor; the creation of a harsher working conditions for women, children, and the disabled; the inequality of pay between men and women; how a boom in stock prices impoverished thousands, especially the poor and people of color , and that social welfare, health, and education benefits had been lessened significantly. To many protestors, the Battle of Seattle was seen as a victory, as the event sparked many new discussions of anti-globalization. It made people discuss why there was so much outcry against these huge international banks, and so it brought several important issues concerning globalization to the forefront of everyday conversation. However, anti-globalization was not focused solely in the US. While protestors in Seattle were battling for better lives, Argentina was going through its own kind of battle. From 1998 to 2001, Argentina went through one of the worst economic recessions in all of its history. In the space of three years, the economy shrunk by 28%, and unemployment was up to 53% in 2001 . This par...
... middle of paper ...
...icans/public/?a=Files.Serve&File_id=5fbf2f91-6cdf-4e70-8ff2-620ba901fc4c
Tom Miles. "WTO faults Argentina on trade policy, data transparency." Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/20/argentina-inflation-wto-idUSL6N0CCC9B20130320 Andrew Berg, Eduardo Borensztein “Full Dollarization: The Pros and Cons.” International
Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/issues/issues24/
“Argentina blasts WTO for its biased and tendentious reports on world trade” MercoPress. http://en.mercopress.com/2012/07/20/argentina-blasts-wto-for-its-biased-and-tendentious-reports-on-world-trade Ngaire Woods and Domenico Lombardi. “Effective Representations and Coalitions within the IMF.” Global Economic Program.
http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/21568/1/Effective%20representation%20and%20the%20role%20of%20coalition%20within%20the%20IMF.pdf?1
In his book, Globalization and its Discontents, the author provides an enthralling perspective on the shadow side of globalization. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz’s experiences as the Chief Economist of the World Bank and the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton Administration has provided him with an interesting vantage point to understand the inner workings of the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO and also the governments and finance ministries of many countries across the world.
The United States of America has always done good even without gaining anything in return.Imperialism at the time was a word that was common among not only politicians but also in the possession of American citizens, this proves that the influence was a major plus to America’s global imperialism and expansionism. The Dominican Republic during the 20th century suffered from being in the temptation of Communism. The U.S was able to occupy the Dominican Republic and because of this their actions were viewed as imperialistic to Americas inhabitants and foreign nations as well. Although some believe that the United States is an imperialistic because of past interaction with the D.R it was not the same case this time around.
The historian Ronn Pineo wrote “Beginning in the 1980s nearly all of Latin America began to take part in a great experiment, the adoption of capitalist free market economic policies.” (1) This great experiment began with the promotion of democracy and free market that promised a better future for Latin America. Neoliberalism, the economic ideology that promotes free-market capitalism, laid the foundation for many of the US military interventions and economic policies that caused a dramatic transformation of Latin America. This promise of a “democratic” government came from a policy initiative labeled as polyarchy. Polyarchy is “ a system in which a small group governs and mass participation in decision making is limited to choosing leaders in elections that are carefully managed by competing elites” (Lecture: Polyarchy and Resistance). It, however, was a sales pitch to continue Latin America’s subordinate position in to the global market. As a result, much of Latin America, by the late 1980 through the early 1990s, transitioned into this form of “democracy”. Consequently, Latin America suffered and still suffers today from underdevelopment, high levels of socioeconomic inequality, and immigration. Globalization of capital, off-shore production, and new technologies have created structural barriers and have
Naomi Klein’s No Logo states that corporations have been championing globalization using the reasons that globalization allows U.S. consumers to benefit from cheaper products produced abroad, while developing nations benefit from the economic growth stimulated by foreign investments. The generally accepted belief is that governmental policies should be established in favor of the corporations to facilitate the trickling down of corporate profits to the end consumers and workers abroad. Klein, however, contends that globalization rarely benefit the workers in the developing countries.
The 1999 Seattle protests brought the apparent proliferation of anti-globalization grassroot sociopolitical movements into the limelight of the world stage. Transnational social movements (TSMs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), as well as the loose transnational activist networks (TANs) that contain them—all these came to be seen as an angry and no less potent backlash that's directed at the powerful states and increasingly towering economic IGOs such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank. In the field of international relations, some regard this as a prophetic watershed event that signals the weakening and perhaps even collapsing of the state-centric system of international relations, while many others insist that Seattle is but an eventually insignificant episode in the book of globalization and state power, as evidenced by the Doha success.
Within the United States there is a huge diversity of cultures. Culture is many different things, it is a tradition, it is the values and beliefs passed down from generation to generation, and culture is the identity of any country. Culture helps to identify one cultural group from the other. Although we may live in the same country,city, or state we still differ from one another by the way we dress, our beliefs, language, traditions, music, art, food, religion, and politics.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2000). The IMF and the World Bank: puppets of the neoliberalism onslaught. Retrieved April 05, 2014, from MIT website: http://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v13/2/imf.html
In an interview with the Peterson Institute, Rodrik claims he is trying to create “a new narrative to shape the next stage of globalization, and to address the imbalance between the national scope of governments and the global nature of markets”, in many ways, this book does just that. As previously stated, Rodrik has diagnosed a “Political Trilemma of the World Economy”. The first point is that of Hyperglobalization, which is the ambitious agenda of “economic liberalization and deep integration” (17). In other words, it is a rapid and w...
Kofi Annan, a UN diplomat, once said,“...that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.” He is undoubtedly correct in this assessment. Indeed, globalization is no longer something to be skeptical of, it is very real and is changing our world exponentially. The affects of globalization, however, continue to be a heated topic for debate. Proponents praise the overall economic lift provided by free trade, the diffusion of cultures, and the spread of democracy and capitalism. Critics cry foul at the loss of national identity, the accelerated and uncontrolled use of natural resources, and the redistribution of wealth into the hands of a few very powerful people and corporations. Globalization is a polarizing topic and it has affected people in different and varying ways. I looked back over my life, looking for personal experiences that represent the affect of globalization upon my life. It is difficult to pinpoint exact experiences, but it is clear the broader affects globalization has had on my life such as in the spread of cultural practices such as yoga or foreign entertainment, or the rapid demise of the Midwestern manufacturing industry.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. Making Globalization Work. New York: Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. Kindle ebook file.
...o we can achieve our dreams in life: “we are now living in a world where time and space don’t matter anymore” just like J.Mittleman said. Globalization as we just learned is relative, whether it’s an opportunity or an exploitation depends on where you sit and how you look at the world. Kent, J., Kinetz, E. & Whehrfritz, G. Newsweek. Bottom of the barrel. - The dark side of globalization (2008/March24). David, P. Falling of The Edge, Travels through the Dark Heart of Globalization..Nov 2008. (p62)
Janssen, Arnold. “Greece and the IMF: Who Exactly is Being Saved?” Center for Economic and Policy Research. (July, 2010)
For the first time, causing many to wonder, “What is globalization exactly, and why are the protesters so against it? “ “What are the mysterious institutions the WTO, the IMF, and the Bank- that the media keep? “ “And what could be so problematic about free
Stiglitz, Joseph (2005), “The Overselling of Globalization,” in Bradley A. Thayer, Nuray V. Ibrayomova (eds.), Debates in International Relations (New York: Longman), 86.
On the other hand, opponents question if the benefits of globalization compensate the created downsides. In their opinion, globalization has manifested unemployment, poverty and marginalization. Additionally, it has been one of the key drivers ...