The Rise of the New Money Doctors in Mexico Sarah Babb Department of Sociology The University of Massachusetts at Amherst
[email protected] DRAFT ONLY: PLEASE DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHOR’S PERMISSION Paper presented at a conference on the Financialization of the Global Economy, Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, December 7-8, 2001, Amherst, MA. Dr. E.W. Kemmerer, renowned Professor of Money and Banking and International Finance, did not lecture to a class of juniors and seniors in the fall of 1926 as originally scheduled. Instead, in mid- October, he, five other experts, two secretaries and four wives were aboard the British liner Ebro, off the northwest coast of South America. He wrote in his diary, 'We arrived in La Libertad, Ecuador, after dark...Took launch to Salinas, transferred to a smaller launch, then to a dug-out canoe and were finally carried ashore on the backs of natives.' --From Kemmerer, Donald L. 1992. The Life and Times of Professor Edwin Walter Kemmerer, 1875-1845, and How He Became an International "Money Doctor." Kemmerer, Donald L. P. 1. ASPE: In the 1950s, when Japan was labor-intensive, it was good that Japan had a current account deficit. Then Japan became highly capital-intensive and now has a surplus of capital. FORBES: This is getting complicated. ASPE: I'm sorry if I sound professorial. FORBES: Don't apologize. It's a pleasure to meet someone running an economy who understands economics. --From a Forbes magazine interview with former Mexican Finance Minister Pedro Aspe, entitled "We Don't Tax Capital Gains." Forbes.