Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Contradictory Pessimism

Eugenio Anguiano kicks around the idea of Mexico being a failed state, eventually settling (I think) on, "Not as a whole, but it is a failure for lots of individuals" as his response. (My characterization of his words, not his.) He's also the first analyst I can remember to directly consider the idea of a Mexican recession, saying, "[T]he contraction of the economy in 2009 is practically a fact; the IMF just lowered its world growth projections and it placed that of Mexico at 0.9 percent."

Not to be a Phil Gramm, and I concede Enguiano's broader point that the government shouldn't be building its budget on an unrealistic growth projection (the budget is based on 1.8 percent growth), but if Mexico is going to grow at 0.9 percent in 2009, how is contraction "practically a fact?"

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