Introduction
Mark Weisbrot is an American economist, columnist and co-director, with Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C. His writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and Brazil's largest newspaper, Folha de S.Paulo. He is a regular columnist at The Hill (newspaper) and with Tribune Content Agency. Weisbrot is also president of Just Foreign Policy, a non-governmental organization dedicated to reforming United States foreign policy.
As an economist, Weisbrot has opposed privatization of the United States Social Security system and has been critical of neoliberal globalization and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He has supported efforts by South American governments to create a Bank of the South, in order to make them more independent of the IMF. Weisbrot's work on Latin American countries (including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela) has attracted national and international attention, and in 2008 was cited by Brazilian Foreign Secretary Celso Amorim. His work on Greece’s ongoing debt crisis has influenced the debate over what measures the Greek government should take in negotiating a solution with the European Central Bank, European Commission, and the IMF, including with Greece’s former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Education
Weisbrot received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. His 1993 thesis, Ideology And Method In the History of Development Economics says the mainstream neoclassical economics model sets boundaries for development economics and is presented in a context where "development economics can be seen as an attempt to break out of the boundaries delineated by the neoclassical project in order to understand the problems of underdeveloped countries".
Economist
In 1999, Weisbrot co-founded, together with economist Dean Baker, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). Weisbrot is co-author, with Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 1999). In the book, Weisbrot and Baker argue that much of the United States Social Security debate has been based on misconceptions, that privatization would be unlikely to improve the system, and that the system in fact performs satisfactorily and does not need fixing.
Weisbrot has several times contributed testimony to Congressional hearings, in 2002 to a House of Representatives committee, on Argentina's 1999–2002 economic crisis and in 2004 to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on the state of democracy in Venezuela, and on media representation of Hugo Chávez and of Chávez's Venezuela.
Globalization
Commenting on international matters, Weisbrot argues that globalization, as promoted by the United States government and American lending institutions, has failed to live up to its promise of making poorer countries grow rich, stating that "no nation has ever pulled itself out of poverty under the conditions that Washington imposes on underdeveloped countries." He has criticized the role played by the IMF and took an active role in developing the Bank of the South, a joint project by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela and spearheaded by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Weisbrot has been described as the intellectual architect behind the bank, and has provided some advice to countries seeking to take part in it. He has also suggested that the founding of other alternative lending and finance institutions that do not include participation by the U.S., such as those being created by the BRICS countries, may have positive implications both for borrowing countries and in terms of weakening the influence of Washington-based institutions like the IMF.
Latin America
Weisbrot's work was cited by Brazilian Foreign Secretary Celso Amorim. In a 2016 National Review article describing Venezuela's deterioration following the Bolivarian Revolution, Weisbrot was described as one of the "leftist admirers of Venezuela" and an "ardent cheerleader" of Hugo Chávez's policies.
Media
Activist
Weisbrot, a supporter of the policies implemented during Hugo Chávez's presidency, and colleague Deborah James attended the "Chávez Was Here" gathering created by the Embassy of Venezuela, Washington, D.C. to commemorate the legacy of Hugo Chávez and show support for the Bolivarian Revolution. He spoke about the progress under the Bolivarian Revolution and criticized the Latin American media, the United States media and the Venezuelan opposition. In 2014, Weisbrot headed the "Chavez, Communicator of the 21st Century" ceremony with Venezuelan government officials at the mausoleum of Hugo Chávez in the Cuartel de la Montaña (es), where he denounced alleged media attacks on Venezuela and the former president.
Film
In 2009, Weisbrot and Tariq Ali wrote the screenplay for the Oliver Stone's South of the Border, which examined the "pink tide" of elected leftist governments in South America.
Publications
Weisbrot writes a column on economic and policy issues that is distributed across the United States by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. His work appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times/International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and The Nation as well as news websites such as AlterNet, the Common Dreams NewsCenter and The Huffington Post. Internationally, Weisbrot writes a column for the UK's The Guardian, and for Brazil's largest newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo.
Weisbrot's commentaries on Latin American affairs have been broadly sympathetic to many governments in South America, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela. In particular, Weisbrot has praised Latin American governments' attempts to assert stronger national control over key national resources, and to take a tougher stance in relation to foreign creditors. Weisbrot has also criticized some of these governments' policies.
Reception
Francisco Rodríguez, Head of Research of the United Nations Human Development Report Office, has debated with Weisbrot due to the praise Weisbrot gave to Hugo Chávez's economic policies.
Weisbrot has also sparred with Larry Rohter, the former South American bureau chief of The New York Times, over his statements on Venezuela. Rohter claimed that in support of the film "South of the Border", Weisbrot, Tariq Ali, and Oliver Stone manipulated data to present a positive image of Hugo Chávez. Weisbrot has contested the claims of inaccuracies, suggesting that they are indicative of sloppy and misleading coverage of Venezuela in the popular press.
