GFDD Global Roundtables: Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research States that “As Long as Sovereignty and Democracy Persist, Latin American Countries Will Continue to Grow and Develop”

For this May edition of the GFDD Global Roundtables, GFDD Executive Director, Natasha Despotovic welcomed Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

During this session, Despotovic and Weisbrot discussed the findings of Weisbrot’s latest book Failed: What the "Experts" Got Wrong About the Global Economy, in addition to an engaged debate about the long term economic failures and
changes that have taken place in the last couple of decades and how these have impacted Latin America.

Weisbrot argued that, starting in the 1980s, the Latin American economy began to improve which was reflected in the overall poverty reduction and GDP increase. Moreover, he stated that as the
IMF lost its influence over the region, Latin American countries were able to regain their economic sovereignty, which played an important role in their economic development. Furthermore, he highlighted policy improvements in the region brought about with the support of international organizations such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which is now presided by the Dominican Republic.

Despotovic maintained
that “the institutions, economy and political power of Latin American countries have significantly improved”. Weisbrot concurred, commenting that “as long as sovereignty and democracy persist, Latin American countries can continue to grow and develop”. He told viewers that, although economic growth had been slow in the Euro Zone and China due to governments implementing the wrong long-term economic policies, he still envisioned a global economic
recovery.

About Mark Weisbrot
In addition to being the Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Mark Weisbrot is also the author of the book Failed: What the "Experts" Got Wrong About the Global Economy and co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis, and has written numerous research papers on economic policy. Weisbrot also
writes a regular column on economic and policy issues that is distributed to over 550 newspapers by the Tribune Content Agency. His opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and almost every major U.S. newspaper, as well as in Brazil’s largest newspaper, Fohla de São Paulo. He appears regularly on national and local television
and radio programs and is also president of Just Foreign Policy, an independent organization dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy by mobilizing and organizing the broad majority of Americans who want a foreign policy based on diplomacy, law and cooperation.

About the Global Roundtable
In close association with the United Nations, the Mission of the Dominican Republic to the UN, GFDD organizes regular meetings with UN Ambassadors and
other prominent figures in the international community in an effort to spread the news, knowledge and understanding of other countries, global issues and work of different United Nations bodies to its audience in the Dominican Republic, the US and around the world. The regular series, GFDD Global Roundtable is also a part of GFDD’s program to support the work of the United Nations and, as a non-governmental institution affiliated to it, contribute to the visibility and
understanding of its work.

Related Links:
www.gfddglobalroundtable.org