If there is one thing everyone seems to agree on, it is that the economic maladies afflicting Latin America have defied easy solutions.

Although it has been a generation since Latin America began to implement structural reform, difficult questions remain: Was the region given the wrong medicine, not enough of the right medicine or did it fail to follow the prescribed treatment regime?

This was the heart of the discussion taken up at the Kellogg Institute's conference "Latin America in the Global Economy." Joining the debate were former Mexican President ERNESTO ZEDILLO and some of the hemisphere's most prominent economic policy makers, including high-level officials from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and private banks.

The conference, held on April 19, was sponsored by the Kellogg Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

"In 2004, we had the highest year of economic growth (in Latin America since the late 1970s)," observed Zedillo in his keynote speech. "But, when your economy (citing the example of Venezuela) falls by 25 percent and then rises by 15 percent, that is not something to be proud of."

Despite the strong growth that some Latin American countries have experienced recently and in the early 1990s, overall growth remains at unimpressive levels and below the rate typical in the region during the 1960s and 1970s. Meanwhile the economies of the Asian ‘Tigers' have roared to life, vastly outperforming all of Latin America except Chile.

Central to the debate at the conference was the effectiveness of the "Washington consensus," a phrase coined by economist John Williamson in 1990 that summarized the prevailing view of Washington-based international financial institutions. Among the ten recommendations were proposals to promote macroeconomic discipline, while encouraging trade openness and market-friendly microeconomic policies.

Due to the region's anemic growth in GDP and the slow progress in raising living standards from 1990 onwards, the market-oriented policies have become something of lightning rod for its critics. "The disappointing progress in raising standards of living and the related phenomenon of reform fatigue are taking their toll on Latin America as large numbers of voters voice their frustrations at the ballot box or on the street," said E. GERALD CORRIGAN, managing director at Goldman Sachs and former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.