| Mexicos reserves were down to $2 billion, and the value of the peso had dropped another 10 percent during the dayThat evening, Rubin and Summers came to the White House to see Leon Panetta and Sandy Berger, who was handling the issue for the National Security CouncilIn blunt terms, Rubin told them, Mexico has about forty-eight hours to liveGingrich called to say he couldnt pass the aid package for another two weeks, if at allDole had already said the same thingThey had tried, as had Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt, but the opposition was too strong
I returned to the White House from a fund-raiser at about 11 pand went to Leons office to hear the grim messageRubin and Summers briefly restated the consequences of a Mexican default, then said we needed only $20 billion in loan guarantees, not $25 billion, because International Monetary Fund director Michel Camdessus had put together almost $18 billion in aid that the IMF would extend if the United States acted; combined with smaller contributions from other countries and the World Bank, that brought the total aid package to just under $40 billion
Though they favored going forward, Sandy Berger and Bob Rubin discount tiffany's necklace again pointed out the risksA newly published poll in the Los Angeles Times said the American people opposed helping Mexico by 79 percent to 18 percentI replied, So a year from now, when we have another million illegal immigrants, were awash in drugs from Mexico, and lots of people on both sides of the Rio Grande are out of work, when they ask me, Why didnt you do something? what will I say? That there was a poll that said 80 percent of Americans were against it? This is something we have to doThe meeting lasted about ten minutes
The next day, January 31, we announced the aid package with money from the Exchange Stabilization FundThe loan agreement was signed a couple of weeks later at the Treasury Building, to howls of protest in Congress and grumbles among our G-7 allies, who were upset that the IMF director had made the $18 billion commitment to Mexico, and to us, without their prior approvalThe first money was released in March, after which we continued to make regular disbursements, even though things didnt really get better in Mexico for several monthsBy the end of the year, however, investors had entered the Mexican markets again and foreign exchange quilted chanel bag reserves had begun to build upErnesto Zedillo had also instituted the reforms he had promised
Though it was tough at first, the aid package workedIn 1982, when the Mexican economy collapsed, it had taken almost a decade for growth to returnThis time, after a year of severe recession, the Mexican economy started to grow againAfter 1982, it had taken seven years for Mexico to regain access to the capital marketsIn 1995, it took only seven monthsIn January 1997, Mexico repaid its loan in full, with interest, more than three years ahead of scheduleMexico had borrowed $10 billion of the $20 billion we made available, and it paid a total of $1 billion in interest, almost $600 million more than the money would have earned had it been invested in UTreasury notes, as other Exchange Stabilization Fund monies wereThe loan turned out to be not only good policy but also a good investment
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman called the Mexican loan guarantee the least popular, least understood, but most important foreign policy decision of the Clinton PresidencyHe may have been rightAs for popular opposition, 75 percent of the people had also opposed the Russian aid prada bags cheap package; my decision to restore Aristide in Haiti was unpopular; and my subsequent actions in Bosnia and Kosovo met with initial popular resistancePolls can be helpful in telling a President what the American people think, and which arguments may be most persuasive at a particular time, but they cannot dictate a decision that requires looking down the road and around the cornerThe American people hire a President to do the right thing for our country over the long runHelping Mexico was the right thing for AmericaIt was the only sensible economic course, and by taking it, we proved ourselves to be, once again, a good neighbor
On February 9, Helmut Kohl came to see meHe had just been reelected, and he confidently predicted that I would be as wellHe told me we were living in turbulent times, but the end would bring me out all rightAt the press conference after our meeting, Kohl paid a moving tribute to Senator Fulbright, who had died shortly after midnight at the age of eighty-nineKohl said he came from a generation who, when they were students, wanted nothing more than to obtain a Fulbright scholarship, and that, across the world, Fulbrights name was rolex watches ladies associated with openness, with friendship, and with people striving togetherAt the time of his passing, more than 90,000 Americans and 120,000 students from other countries had been Fulbright scholars
I had gone to Senator Fulbrights home to visit him not long before he diedHe had had a stroke and his speech was somewhat impaired, but his eyes were bright, his mind was working, and we had a good last visitFulbright would loom large in American historyas I said at his memorial service, Always the teacher and always the student
On February 13, Laura Tyson and the other members of the Council of Economic Advisers, Joe Stiglitz and Martin Baily, gave me a copy of the latest Economic Report of the PresidentIt highlighted our progress since 1993, as well as the persistent problems of income stagnation and inequalityI used the occasion to push the Middle-Class Bill of Rights and my proposal to increase the minimum wage by 90 cents over two years, from $4The raise would benefit 10 million workers, adding $1,800 a year to their incomesHalf the increase was necessary just to get the minimum wage (after inflation) back to what it had been in 1991, the last time it was chanel purses and handbags rai |
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