Mexico remains far behind its North American neighbors, economically it has become stagnant and slow, and as a result the nation has been affected by social inequality. But some might argue that, unlike other nations, Mexico has been spoiled and no longer has any excuse for remaining in such a state of underdevelopment, so far behind the West. But on the contrary, I believe that it is precisely those “pampering” and that extra attention from Washington that have led the current state of Mexico, its position and close relationship with the United States to become, in my opinion, the ruin of the Mexican economy. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that Mexico's current economic condition of relative underdevelopment can be traced directly to the influence of the Washington Consensus and policies implemented at the behest of neoliberal financial institutions, particularly the IMF and the World Bank, which I am in favor of the free market. Despite the positives resulting from Western influence in Mexico, much of the neoliberal policy that has resulted has become the very thing holding Mexico back, the fact of the matter is that as long as such policies remain, so will Mexico's economic obstacles. Over the past 20 years, a lot has happened in Mexico's economy, and a look at the nations past can provide a better understanding of how it got here and where it is headed now. Over the last century, Mexico has gone from being a rural, illiterate, backward, and predominantly peasant nation to a predominantly urban, literate, working-class, and middle-class society (Castaneda and Pastor, 1988). And even in recent years, the nation of Mexico has done nothing but accelerate toward global economic participation. Having taken the nation from being a developing country to slowly becoming… middle of paper… poverty, presenting an anomaly to economic specialists around the world. It would seem that the North American inclination towards a stronger bloc should automatically lead to support for Mexico under the leadership of the United States and Canada, but according to the facts Mexico, at best, is being dragged far behind. Now, am I claiming that all the employees of these Bretton Woods institutions are determined to see the end of the Mexican economy? No, in fact, it is very likely that every single employee is convinced that these policies are the best thing for both Mexico and the rest of developing countries. But it is necessary to make it clear that these rigid neoliberal policies are harmful at least to Mexico, if not to every other nation. The facts demonstrate that this neoliberal policy has and will continue to have a negative effect on the Mexican economy.