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This chapter deals with the period between the 1923 economic crisis and an even more severe economic breakdown in 1929. This period saw an engagement of the United States in Europe that had not been possible in the immediate postwar years, generating a few years of relative stability and prosperity in which American manufacturing companies and banks played a major role. It was the phase in which the United States succeeded in deploying its superior industrial and financial power in an attempt to uplift the economies of Europe. During those five years it was not only American ideas and practices of rationalized mass production that came to Europe through massive foreign direct investments; rather Europe, again for the first time, got a taste of mass consumption, even if it was still quite limited in terms of affordable consumer durables.

This chapter shows how construction and renovation continued on schedule even after the economic collapse of 2008 and subsequent budget cuts because of the foresight of using the bond referendum as a funding mechanism. The author was able to preside over the dedication of several new buildings, including the North Carolina Botanical Garden Education Center, the Genetic Medicine Research Building, Taylor residence hall, and new Venable and Murray halls. The author was particularly proud of that last dedication because those two new buildings made the Science Complex envisioned in the campus master plan a bricks and mortar reality. Joining with the recently completed Chapman Hall, Caudill Labs and Sitterson and Brooks Halls and flanked by the older Kenan and Morehead Labs, new Venable and Murray showed UNC's determination to create an environment worthy of the talented faculty and researchers they aimed to attract and keep there.

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the collapse of the Argentine economy in December 2001, which prompted foreign investors to file legal claims against the country. The example highlights the question of who should bear the cost of losses suffered by investors during the crisis and subsequent reforms. The chapter then discusses the emergence of an investment treaty arbitration system, the scope and complexity of the system, and the exceptionality of the system.

Bostonians were anxious about social disorder prevalent in their city and thought the city's accomplishments and beauties were being exaggerated. To curb that, they enforced statutes that curtailed activities potentially rich in group enactments of emotion, such as preaching on the Common. The character of the revival as an occasion for carefully regulated public expression of emotion emerged out of Bostonians' experiences in several overlapping spheres of urban life where the issue of excitement and its regulation was conspicuous. As the economy collapsed in 1857, the Bostinians agreed that the economy had been overexcited and insufficiently regulated. The history of market volatility in the nineteenth century informed their attention to trading and investment. The crash disordered people's lives in its effect on the availability of food, shelter, and clothing. With the collapse of credit, very little money was in circulation, and consequently, there was very little commerce. The social role of the businessman was a most difficult performance as they were expected to excite the economy through investment and trade, through speculation on markets futures, and through the assumption of risk.

This chapter examines Argentina's relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the period 1985–2002. It first considers the new policy team formed by Argentine President Raúl Alfonsín and its plan to solve the country's spiraling inflation problem before discussing the successive failed stabilization programs, including Plan Austral and Plan BB, that culminated in Alfonsín's resignation and the transformation of the Argentine economy under a group of neoliberals in the Peronist government of Carlos Menem. It also analyzes the politics surrounding the series of IMF programs that preceded the economic collapse of 2001–2002, along with the United States's influence on the decision making of the Fund. Finally, it assesses the aftermath of the Argentine crisis.

The abrupt termination of Soviet trade subsidies and other forms of aid beginning in 1989, the tightening of the U.S. trade embargo during the 1990s, and Cuba's temporary virtual withdrawal from international trade, pushed the economy into a freefall which Castro dubbed the Special Period. The population endured further food scarcities and experienced a deterioration in all types of social services. The crisis sparked yet another mass exodus whose participants came to be known as balseros. Also, internal opposition expanded with the emergence of new illegal organizations, political parties, and NGOs. The government responded with a heavy hand. It also embraced numerous reforms such as the legalization of the U.S. dollar, the reallowing of self-employment, and the seeking of foreign investments to revive the economy.

This chapter considers the issues and opportunities for people in Siberia today. It addresses issues such as the extent to which the very richness of Siberian resources cause an imbalance in the economy, as the oil and energy sector now predominate to the detriment of other industries; and the future sustainability of this model: the resources are not infinite and they are in locations which are expensive to exploit and maintain. Siberia also has access to the markets of the Far East, in particular Japan and China, through Vladivostok and the towns along its enormous border with China. There is a recognition that Siberia must look outwards, having artificially had its economy focused internally in the Soviet period. There is also a need for significant investments in Siberia's communications and infrastructure.

Chapter 2 evaluates the implementation of the reforms offered by international financial institutions and shows the propensity of these plans to foster corruption and extreme wealth inequality and, in many cases, an economic collapse that was far greater than what had been foreseen. Those connected to the old regimes or with significant outside financial backing were able to capitalize on misguided and poorly implemented privatization plans. The chapter also explores how corrupt incentive structures created the oligarch class that is the primary driver of economic inequality in the postsocialist world. Finally, it considers the depth and length of transitional recessions, analyzing economic data to show that, in many cases, recovery took decades, and for the worst hit countries, productive capacity has yet to reach pre-1989 levels. Highlighting the dramatic rise of poverty during transition, this chapter points to the failure of the international organizations’ “targeted” poverty-prevention strategy.

This chapter discusses the protestion that was engendered by the decisions made by the government during the 1930s after the start of the national economic collapse. This event led to a period of hardship of extraordinary breadth and severity, and it was worsened by the exceptionally harsh and blinkered reaction to the crisis by the government. This discussion includes sections that trace the origins and rise of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement (NUWM) and the response of the state to its activities.

This epilogue discusses the changes in the use of the Argentine dress codes from being a simple form of a body’s embellishment to a symbol of protest. Dress codes loosened during the twenty-first century, which was evident at the onset of the Argentina’s economic collapse in 2001. During this time, mothers wore their white shawl with embroidered names of their children and employed seamstresses who wore blue smocks in order to rouse awareness in their struggle for human rights. Contemporary political struggles in Argentina have brought about significant shifts in the way fashion is designed, made, consumed, and understood. This chapter then confronts the questions on independence and modern citizenship while keeping in mind the rhetoric of dress.