>From Monday's FT:
<quote>
Euphoria over the [S&P] upgrade, however, was followed by a drop in Mexican markets after the central bank tightened monetary policy to stave off inflation sparked by higher taxes and decliing electricity subsidies. Provisional figures, meanwhile, suggest the ecnomy shrank 1.2 per cent in the 2001 fourth quarter.
<unquote>
Let me get this straight -- even if you agree, as a poor country, to the mad and sadistic idea of tightening your fiscal belt when times are bad (which is where the higher taxes and declining subsidies are coming from in the paragraph above), you then have to tighten monetary policy on top of that in order to make up for the inflation that comes solely from tightening your fiscal belt?
The inquisition's got nothing on the Washington Consensus.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com