The Cyclical Nature of United States Commercial Bank Lending to Latin America World War I through the 1990s

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Doenecke, Justus

Keywords

Banks--Commercial Small, United States History, Latin America, Sachs, Jeffrey, Kemmerer, Edwin

Area of Concentration

History

Abstract

United States lending to foreign countries--bank lending in particular--is seen by many people to be an evil that has stymied Latin America's economic growth for the past century. There is also contention that foreigners hold too much power in that region. Some will argue that the only reason Latin America has enjoyed rapid growth for the past 75 years is the bankroll that foreign capital offers. Unfortunately, those claims are tossed around with very little information or research to support or refute them. In this thesis, I look at how and why U.S. banks lent money to Latin America, going as far back as World War I and leading up to trends that dominate that capital market today. Ideally, investigating economic and social conditions in Latin America and the United States can illuminate the arguments and allow stronger claims to be presented. Are the motivations of the U.S. banks self-serving? Even if they are, does 'philanthropy' have to be completely exclusive of that sentiment? What role do Latin American countries play in the capital market? Most importantly, what have, or should have, cycles of boom and bust in the American lending market to Latin America taught today's investors, if anything?

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS