Graduate student Brian Palmer-Rubin analyzes the “Global Economic Crisis” session of the 2009 U.S.–Mexico Futures Forum which featured presenters Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and former U.S. Secretary of Labor (1993-97) J. Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley; and Isaac Katz, Professor of Economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.
The Great Recession has underscored how closely the economic fates of Mexico and the United States are intertwined, with oil, immigration, and manufacturing playing lead roles in this tale of two economies. Mexico shares nearly 2,000 miles of border with its northern neighbor, and a substantial portion of the country’s income is made up of oil and manufacturing exports to the United States and remittance checks sent home by workers who have immigrated to the world’s largest economy. Mexico inevitably experiences crippling shock waves when the U.S. economy falters.
