So completely do the free-market ideas called “neoliberal” dominate the current Latin American debate that opposing ideas are increasingly treated with the bemused condescension usually reserved for astrological charts and flat-earth manifestos: We hope the astrologers will come around, but there’s nothing left to argue about. The basic ideas of neoliberalism are embedded in the development strategies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The key strategy used by the bank has been “outward orientation and hemispheric integration,” calls for a greater openness to international trade and investment. The article then goes on to critique the strategies.
