ABSTRACT
Events during the 1970s altered the bases of the post-1945 international economy, and ended the period of sustained prosperity hitherto enjoyed by the developed economies. Financial restructuring trends in finance are fundamental to the thrust of recent change and adaptation in the world economy. This chapter considers the role of multinational corporations – including multinational banks - in the industrial and financial restructuring of Latin America. Multinationals channel the spread of a mass-consumer ethos among what are predominantly low to middle income populations. Particularly striking, though, is the observation that some of the largest falls in labour costs were in those main dynamic sectors which are central to the pattern of Brazil’s recent industrial restructuring through greater multinational penetration. In the developed countries, the expansion of industry was underpinned by major technical innovations which gave rise both to new products and production processes, especially in the electrical, electronic, petrochemical and motor vehicle fields.
