Books raise as many questions as they answer. In analyzing some aspects
of the incredibly complex world of politics, even substantial-sized
volumes inevitably neglect others. In this vein, my 2002 study of market
reforms in Latin America focused on political choices in their domestic
context and did not examine how decision-makers learned from the experiences
of other countries. But of course, there was constant crossnational
interaction before and during the wavelike enactment of structural
adjustment. For instance, the theory of inertial inflation elaborated
by Brazilian economists helped inspire Argentina’s Plan Austral, and the
initial success of that stabilization program in turn provided a stimulus
for Brazil’s Plano Cruzado. And in the 1990s, Brazil deliberately avoided
the rigidities created by Argentina’s convertibility scheme.