Role reversal: Latin America taunts US on debt woes
By Brian Winter
This article was published more than ten years ago. The information it contains may be incomplete or out of date.
Worries about contagion; Brazil now a U.S. creditor
After three decades spent battling their own debt crises and getting constantly lectured about them by Uncle Sam, many Latin Americans are watching the countdown to a possible default in Washington with a mix of schadenfraude and fear of what a collapse might mean for them.
For everybody from presidents on down to street vendors, seeing U.S. politicians argue over where to make painful budget cuts has also been a reminder that those days are over in Latin America. For now, at least, as most of the region enjoys an era of economic prosperity and comparatively tiny deficits.