Because research into the creditworthiness of emerging economies has improved, Mr. Taylor said, financial crises these days are less likely than before to spread beyond their country of origin. That means the rationale for the United States and other wealthy nations to step in and bail out countries like Argentina has dwindled. "You can't continue to have large, elephant-style packages," he said.
Mr. Taylor said, the only way to end poverty is to concentrate exclusively on programs that enhance the productivity of labor. He said he was pleased that President Bush had called for the World Bank to change its aid from loans to grants and to provide aid based on the potential for measurable improvements in productivity...
And some recent quotes from Reuters about Argentina --
President Eduardo Duhalde on Friday took the political initiative in Argentina's long crisis, sending Peronist militants onto the streets hours after winning a vote for a dramatically austere budget in Congress.
With banners reading "put the shit where it belongs" under a picture of former Presidents Carlos Menem and De la Rua, 200 protesters threw bags of excrement at Congress on Thursday.
Having run out of patience after four years of recession, middle class Argentines have seen billions of dollars lost after their bank account holdings were frozen and then converted into devalued pesos while unemployment is now over 20 percent of the work force.
The government, unable to pay hundreds of thousands of state workers, is anxiously looking for ways to ensure there is no repeat of food riots in December...
most politicians now avoid busy restaurants and walking on the streets after increasing incidents of attacks by mobs of angry Argentines.
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