ABSTRACT
The Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s has been reported largely as an endless series of negotiations between bankers and debtor governments. Sleek limousines carry dark-suited bankers and political officials from one meeting to another, where they negotiate an arrangement that keeps the debt payments coming. Each agreement is proclaimed a glorious solution to the problem, but few have lasted more than eighteen months. In his analysis of the distributive impact of the debt crisis on Mexico, Leopoldo Solis reaches the rather startling conclusion that the largest share of the burden fell on the shoulders of the salaried, new middle class—deciles V–IX. The political implications of this conclusion are significant. Solis cites statistics indicating that unemployment and underemployment rose by 3.9 percent and 10.3 percent during the period and the economically active population declined from 30.2 percent to 26.2 percent.
