ABSTRACT
Events since 1985 seem to indicate that the US government's minimalist policy has been relatively successful in achieving the goals it initially sought. The sanctity of the financial marketplace has been maintained. The debt problems of the Latin American countries have been consistently treated as a private debtor-creditor issue, and the internationalization of the debt problem by way of a dramatic expansion in the US contribution to multilateral agencies, or an expansion in the role of multilateral agencies, has been avoided. This does not mean that concessions have not been made. Concessions have been made in the search for solutions as the debtor countries have continued to struggle under mountains of debt. In the continuing negotiations since 1985, we have witnessed a significant evolution in the terms under which new loan agreements have been reached, and these have been largely at the expense of the commercial banks.
