Ireland? Spain? Mexico?
I first moved to Mexico, honestly, because in Mexico I found exactly what I wanted from European countries, terrific natural and cultural beauty and sophisticated people. I also found easy-going people with whom I felt immediately comfortable. I remember thinking to myself within a few hours of my first arrival: “In spite of all of its history, and all of its problems, this place has a terrific future.”
This great Financial Times article from today predicts much the same thing. Or truth be told, Mexico’s new finance minister, Agustín Carstens, predicts much the same thing. (That link is to an old bio, and I can’t stand linking to wikipedia but the bio there is actually up-to-date.) The article that does spell out pretty clearly what challenges and obstacles there are in trying to meet the widespread prosperity of places like Spain or Ireland, but this is the Financial Times, not exactly a cheerleader for bad investment opportunities.
His comments […] come as the country of 105m is recording its highest growth in six years. According to the finance ministry, the economy expanded 4.8 per cent last year. By contrast, average annual growth was just 2 per cent in the previous five years.
And I wish sometimes that this were one of those blogs that quotes news articles at length, but it is not: so here is the link again.
The MexFiles, which I read pretty often, expressed some concern back in October, about a former IMF head leading the finance department in Mexico, and the thought does occur to me. I am very diligent about keeping my nose out of Mexican political questions, but the quote that MF provided shows exactly why the Calderon team is a bit of a mystery, and perhaps it will even be a success. I like very much the idea of looking to such stunning success stories as Ireland and Spain for a model of going forward.
Add comment February 14th, 2007
This somewhat unpleasant story comes via