Ambassador Wayne Speaks on the U.S. and International Response to the Global Financial Crisis at the City of Buenos Aires Bar Association

May 14, 2009

Ambassador Wayne and Dr. Del Carril

Ambassador  Wayne visited  on May 14 the Bar Association invited by its President, Enrique del Carril and his Secretary Héctor Huici to speak on the U.S. and International Response to the Global Financial Crisis.

"Argentina, in its role as member of the G-20 Group of nations, a group which represents fully 85% of the world’s economy has played an important and responsible role in our common efforts to confront the challenges the global economy faces,” said Ambassador Wayne.

In his remarks, Mr. del Carril thanked the presence of the Ambassador and noted that Argentina recognizes the strength of U.S. institutions and the full force and effect of the rule of law. 

Ambassador Wayne spoke to an audience of members of the Board and Bar Association and highlighted Argentina’s role as part of the G-20 Group accounting for 85% of the world’s economy, and the important and responsible role played by the country in the common effort of the United States and other countries to confront the challenges the global economy faces. The Ambassador also said:” All countries, including Argentina, have moved forward on the important task of augmenting the resources of the IMF and supporting the World Bank and other multilateral development banks in responsibly stretching their capacity to respond to all members in crisis.”.

Later in his speech, the Ambassador spoke about a U.S. Recovery Agenda and quoted President Obama on the U.S. commitment to do whatever it takes to stimulate growth and demand and to ensure that a crisis like this never happens again. “At home, we're moving forward aggressively on both recovery and reform. The Obama administration has taken unprecedented action to create jobs and restore the flow of credit, noted the Ambassador and added: “Our U.S. response to the crisis is, of course, only one part of a larger globally coordinated effort. The global economy is now so fundamentally interconnected that we can only meet the challenge together. And history shows us that when nations fail to cooperate, when they turn away from one another, when they turn inward, the price for our people only grows.”

The Ambassador also mentioned that today’s global problems “require global solutions. All responsible nations share two principal objectives: early recovery from the current global economic and financial crisis and a significant strengthening of our common defenses against future crises.”

Following his address, Ambassador Wayne took questions from the audience on the most relevant parts of his speech and the Obama administration’s response to the challenges faced by the international financial crisis.