Word: madrid
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Madrid is also modest in his private activities. Where López Portillo was an outgoing sportsman and ban vivant, De la Madrid prefers recreations like reading at home in his library or in the garden (among his favorite authors: Hermann Hesse, Morris West and Mexico's Carlos Fuentes), listening to music (Mozart and Mexican romantics like Agustin Lara), or playing dominoes. Every two or three weeks he travels to his family's country home where he enjoys swimming, badminton and walking. He keeps in shape by doing calisthenics every day; he also jogs. He admits...
...Madrid returned to banking on a full-time basis as a lawyer with the state-run National Bank of Foreign Commerce, one of many institutions set up after the Revolution to control the country's economy. In 1960 he moved to the Bank of Mexico, the country's central bank. Four years later, he spent a year at Harvard on a scholarship, earning a master's degree in public administration. (Among De la Madrid's professors: Liberal Economist John Kenneth Galbraith.) After he returned to Mexico, he became assistant director of public credit in the country...
...Portillo was both a teacher and a novelist; De la Madrid's writings are infinitely drier and more technical. Sample titles: Studies on Constitutional Law; Today's Great National Problems, The Challenge of the Future. Nonetheless, those who know the new President well say that he is also suave, self-assured and possesses a warm sense of humor. Says a Mexican banker: "He is soft in form but hard in substance. I've never heard him raise his voice, but he can be very tough." Says one of De la Madrid's advisers...
...Madrid revealed his own view of himself in an unusually candid description written in response to a request from TIME. "I consider myself to be of normal, serene temperament, but I become enthused or moved by interesting questions or things that impress me," he wrote. "I prefer dealing with people to solitude, but once in a while I appreciate being alone with myself and my reflections. I have always been concerned with equilibrium and avoiding easy irritation or depression. I am fundamentally an optimist...
...view of most experts, De la Madrid will have to maintain a policy of austerity for anywhere from one to four years. His decision to crack down on corruption is designed to avoid the social explosion that might loom as living standards drop further. De la Madrid's aim is to show that belt-tightening will affect the rich as well as the poor. "What's fair is fair," explains a P.R.I, 'politician. "We cannot have fat-cat officials taking advantage of these conditions to feather their own nests." De la Madrid has also made clear that...