I am including a short comment in a new ms. in a section on the rhetoric of risk. I would appreciate any comments, suggestions ....
Walter Wriston once wrote: ##The men and women who founded our country were ... adventurers who took personal risks of the most extreme kind .... Today, however, the idea is abroad in the land that the descendants of these bold adventurers should be sheltered from risk and uncertainty as part of our national heritage .... At bottom, democracy itself rests on an act of faith, on a belief in individual responsibility and the superiority of the free marketplace. [Wriston 1986] People unfamiliar with Wriston's career might not fully appreciate the humor in his words. At the time he was writing, Citibank had only recently become deeply enmeshed in the Latin American debt crisis. Citibank was getting nearly 50 percent of its income from its loans to Latin America. The bank was intent on "selling" as much credit as possible to Latin America. It made these loans without much thought about the ability of Latin American to repay them. Citibank did not have to worry much about default. Later, the United States, in part through the IMF, forced a brutal austerity on Latin America to squeeze as much repayment as possible out of these loans. In short, the loans involved serious risk, but those who bore the brunt of the risk were the poor of Latin America who are still suffering the consequences. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
