Wednesday, October 1, 2008

LatAm could benefit over crisis says Carlos Slim

The $700 billion economic bailout plan may’ve been passed by the U.S. Senate tonight yet it has received great opposition domestically and abroad. The lack of a bailout sent Latin American stocks tumbling on Monday though leaders like Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez have vehemently rejected the rescue package.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has some misgivings over the bailout though from a different angle as Lula and Chavez. Rather than purchase bad assets, Slim proposed that the U.S. government take up majority ownership of ailing investment banks. The telecom mogul praised Berkshire Hathaway head Warren Buffett for investing $5 billion in Goldman Sachs and also claimed that the financial crisis could be helpful to the Latin American market.

In remarks made to the foreign media on Tuesday, Slim added that China should take a more active role in helping the U.S.

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest men, said Tuesday that China should lead rescue efforts for the US financial crisis, and that worldwide stock markets needed better rules.

"China is now the most important country to help responsibly in this crisis"…

"China has great liquidity, large resources, surpluses in its current accounts and a lot of capital flow," he said.

"There is a systematic crisis in the whole financial system and the problem is that everything is interconnected."

Image- MSNBC

Sources- The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Monsters & Critics, Bloomberg, IHT, Reuters, AFP

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