Conf. focuses on Latin America

Despite its West Philadelphia location, the Wharton School managed to have an impact on a half-million residents of the southern hemisphere last weekend. At least 500,000 Latin American viewers from more than 20 counties -- including Argentina, Mexico and Brazil -- watched DirecTV's live satellite broadcast of Friday's Wharton Latin American business conference held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, marking the first time the school has broadcast an event via satellite. The television audience joined more than 400 Wharton faculty and students, Latin American industry leaders and top government and corporate officials to discuss Latin America's current role in the global marketplace, investment opportunities and ways to whether the current regional financial crisis centered in Brazil. "We hope people take away from the conference a better understanding of Latin America's current crisis, learn the realities of the region and its people and get to ask questions to leaders in the region who are living those realities on a daily basis," said Conference Chairperson Sydel Howell, a second-year MBA student. Conference events ranged from keynote speeches to panel discussions about globalization, Latin American financial markets, development of the region's industry and infrastructure and expansion of electronic commerce opportunities. Nearly every speaker mentioned how Brazil's current financial crisis has impacted his or her field. In a panel discussion on financial markets, Deutsche Bank Chief and Latin American economist Liliana Rojas-Suarez said that like most emerging markets, Brazil's financial problems are the result "not of a currency crisis but a budget crisis." And Wharton Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel resolved that the major thing Brazil must do is keep its budget deficit under control. "Once you do that, you can stabilize the currency and make other reforms," he said. "Countries that don't have fiscal responsibility get into trouble." Francisco Gros, the chairperson of Morgan Stanley's Latin American, division seemed to agree. "There needs to be some basic rules to join the club," Gros said in his keynote address, stressing the importance of markets with sound fundamentals such as standard accounting practices, banking principles and a stable currency. "But strict adjustment overnight is just not going to work." "Markets make instantaneous decisions. Companies can [react], but countries cannot," Gros added, partly attributing Brazil's situation to poor fiscal policy decisions. Despite the evidence of an economic downturn in Latin America, most industry leaders and investment bankers on the panels remained optimistic. Though prices have gone down in Latin America, "there are many companies with very good fundamentals, excellent managers and very good resources," said Standard and Poor's Latin American Finance Director Rosario Buendia, a Wharton alumna. "If you have an appetite for risk, there are [investment] opportunities." Most students who attended the event were extremely satisfied with the speakers and topics. "I learned about a lot of finance terms, government policies and industrial economics that I wouldn't find in a more theory-based classroom," Wharton sophomore Delfina Baribeau said. "Being from Mexico, it was particularly enlightening to hear native Latinos speak," she added. "They gave a different perspective on global issues than someone looking from the outside on another culture."