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CHOICE Review

The second volume of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean's (ECLAC) two-volume study of the current economic crisis in Latin America, the first one being External Debt in Latin America (CH, Jan '86). The volume consists of four essays. The first studies the changing nature of bargaining power between borrowers (Latin American governments) and lenders (private banks) in the 1970s and 1980s, using Peruvian and Bolivian case studies. The second essay diagnoses the financial crisis of the 1980s and critically surveys alternative policy possibilities for Latin American as well as ``Center'' governments and for lending banks and international agencies. The third essay analyzes the efficacy and costs of policies to fight inflation and external payments deficits by the ``neo-conservative'' governments of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay between 1974 and 1983. The last essay is a survey and critique of International Monetary Fund adjustment policies in Latin America during the last decade or so. The essays are complex, meticulously documented, but unusually clear in their exposition. The orientation of the authors is decidedly practical, but the care with which they lay out the theoretical (and occasionally political) premises of various policy options is truly exceptional. Extensive and current bibliography. Extremely valuable for advanced students.-F.S. Weaver, Hampshire College