US Cooperation Research Articles

Allies in a turbulent world: challenges to US and Western European cooperation

Allies in a turbulent world: challenges to US and Western European cooperation

Why Mexico's ‘stabilizing development’ was actually destabilizing (with some implications for the future)

The recent devaluation of the Mexican peso, with all its accompanying disruptions, was a symptom of still unresolved structural problems. Apparent successes of the economy during the ‘stabilizing development’ of the 1960s caused the deferral of difficult solutions to underlying fiscal, financial and social problems. Echeverría's ‘shared development’ policies heightened the instability of the economy by avoiding tax reforms, postponing inevitable peso devaluation and failing to implement measures to reduce social inequalities. Given the eventual devaluations in 1976 and subsequent float of the peso, the new administration hopes to address more effectively fiscal and social disequilibria, but US cooperation will be required in the form of long-term credit to facilitate internal growth and employment, and in migration policy to permit a safety valve for Mexico's large and growing labour surplus.