An old Mexican proverb goes: “The devil knows more for being old than for being the devil.” It stresses the importance of heeding the lessons of the past and adapting accordingly, rather than defaulting to old habits.

For three decades, Latin America was associated with currency and banking crises. But the current global economic crisis has been different, having started in the developed world. Several countries in Latin America, notably Brazil, had embraced sound macroeconomic policies in the past decade that positioned them to withstand the worst of it.