Introduction

The signs of recovery in the US economy and its 2014 attempt to normalise its monetary policy coincided with a profound social and economic crisis in Latin America, which has been complicated by the 2017 change in the US administration. In Latin America, the main manifestation of the opening took place through capital accounts, which reached their peaks after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis as a result of excess liquidity derived from the USA quantitative easing policies. Although the leadership of global chains remained in the developed countries that controlled technological innovation and know-how, corporations also developed in Asia and Latin America. One could conclude that Latin America’s emerging countries went through a sui-generis process, explained on the basis of their subordinate insertion into production with low levels of accumulation, thin, narrow financial markets, high interest rates, overvalued exchange rates, and US-dollar-denominated debt. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.