i would add a few comments in response to ted's;
international finance is an incredibly complicated, and increasingly intertwined story to follow - anyone who would claim to understand it, is either a liar or a fool - the only person in our government in whom i have any confidence at the present is jerome powell. and he is being hounded for trying to give wise counsel to folks who have no interest in what he says....he has a bit more than 1 year remaining in his term, and i fear he will be replaced by someone whose expertise is on the level of that of r.f.kennedy jr., christy noem, pete hegseth, et al.
go back to the mid 90's, and focus on mexico, it offers many useful examples. ted's mention of small farmers - in southern talk - truck farmers, growing food for sustenance, but also enough to sell/trade/barter in local markets. also occuring in that time frame was the overhaul of the general agreement on taxes and tariffs (GATT). the major players (G8) leveraged liberalizing agricultural trade barriers....over the votes of two very dissimilar countries, who had resisted those changes for years. the two were japan and france, whose trade representatives had managed to keep fairly strong barriers against agricultural imports. france had/has a cultural history of small family farms, and many small local markets - and japan did not allow rice to be freely imported...because there were thousands of rice farmers (most with only 2-3 acres under cultivation) who supplied that nation with an intrinsically cultural commodity. both countries understood that free trade of agricultural products would have profound effects - that echo what ted mentioned. think for a moment about the fruits and vegetables that we now consume, things that were once governed by seasons, that can now be bought almost year-round - this fact connects very much with those changes in the mid 90's.
and then consider the results from the north american free trade agreement (NAFTA), that affected mexico in very specific ways: the maquiladora's - factories built along the us/mexican border, principally in texas & california, to access the cheap labor available in the depressed economic situation there. (and in part, a result of ill conceived loans by the international monetary fund (IMF) during the 80's) dozens of large assembly/subassembly factories were built, and acted as economic magnets for the impoverished, and under-educated rural population. the result? the colonias, masses of people lured to the border by the promise of gainful employment. 10 years later, the factories all closed - low-balled by even cheaper labor in china and pacific rim.
where do you think the cartels got their manpower to take control of mexico?
GATT changes, NAFTA, monetary manipulation, poor people leading poor lives, cartels, investments that take advantage of every possible angle - these all play into things that happen....if you're looking for simple answers this is not a good area.
i have a simple structural outline to help understand how we get into these sort of messes: 1) good intentions, 2) unintended consequences, 3) slippery slopes.
and the always useful advice - follow. the. money. nothing happens, anywhere, any time; no matter how awful, that someone doesn't profit from it.
Last edited by graybeardtmm3; 07/03/25 01:15 AM.
