Showdown Over Latin Debt

In a significant reversal, the U.S. seeks more loans for the Third World

When seven top U.S. bankers received telephone calls from Treasury Secretary , James Baker last week, they dropped what they were doing and rushed to Washington. Huddling in his Treasury Building office with the moneymen and Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, Baker gave a 95-minute preview of a new Reagan Administration plan for defusing the Third World debt bomb. Meanwhile, in New York City, a group of bankers representing 600 international lenders agreed to grant Mexico an emergency six-month extension on nearly $1 billion of IOUs. While those events unfolded, the sharp impact of another new Washington strategy was being felt...

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