Cliff Stearns: “The gentleman, perhaps like myself, has heard the arguments if we do not give this money to Mexico, there will be a…”

“The gentleman, perhaps like myself, has heard the arguments if we do not give this money to Mexico, there will be a financial catastrophe in Mexico and we hear that oftentimes here in the halls of Congress and we have heard the administration--in fact, recently Mr. Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Secretary of Treasury, Mr. Rubin, used this. And frankly I think it is sort of a scare tactic because a recent Wall Street Journal properly debunks that whole idea that there would be a financial catastrophe. From early December through mid-February, stock markets in emerging countries that undertook significant pro-markets reforms, the ones you are talking about, and sound money reforms survived quite nicely during the so-called global crisis that the currency has just been through. Stock markets in Singapore, Chile, and the Czech Republic were essentially flat during that period. Emerging nations with partial or faltering reforms, including Brazil and Hungary, however, did indeed suffer mightily during the Mexican breakdown. So, in other words, private global investment capital is discerning and mobile. It knows where it is investing its money. It knows a good deal from a bad deal and it will not be intimidated by disaster scenarios conjured up by financial officials like Chairman Greenspan and Secretary Rubin.”