Professors Robin Grier, Mark Frazier and Mitchell Smith lead a panel discussion,"The Global Financial Crisis: Perspectives from China, Latin America and Europe," on Monday in the Heritage Room at the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Saul Martinez/The Daily

The economic recession is not confined just to the U.S. anymore — its impact is reaching across the globe.

There is no longer a question of whether the U.S. is in a recession, said Mitchell Smith, associate professor of political science and international and area studies. The question now is how other countries are responding to the U.S. crisis, he said.

“Everybody’s affected by it in one way or another. In some sense, nobody’s immune,” Smith said in a panel discussion Monday afternoon.

The panel, titled “The Global Financial Crisis: Perspectives from China, Latin America and Europe,” was hosted by the School of International and Area Studies in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Heritage Room.

Although other countries have long tried to model the U.S. form of capitalism, that trend could change in the near future, Smith said. He said the U.S. economic model is struggling because of substantial under-regulation by the U.S. government.

“There’s a question in the future of the American model of capitalism,” he said. “How willing is the U.S. to examine its own model of capitalism?”

Smith said Europe has seen its forms of government as distinctly different from that of the U.S., so European nations did not initially think America’s recession would affect them.

“There was a growing recognition that, in fact, European markets were vulnerable to what was going on,” he said.

The negative effect on other countries’ economies was mainly due to global interdependence, Smith said. He said the disarray began in early October when Irish banks began guaranteeing full deposits for all investments made. He said this caused too many people to invest large sums of money in Ireland’s banks, leading to a financial crisis.

Smith said the European countries most enveloped by economic crises are Iceland, Ukraine and Hungary.

China also has become part of the crisis. More than 40 percent of the country’s economy is tied up in investments, and at least 30 to 40 percent of its income is from exports, said Mark Frazier, professor of Chinese politics in international and area studies. He said the Chinese stock market has significantly decreased this year, and housing prices are falling.

“Whether the economic Chinese policy-makers like it or not, they’re faced with a crisis,” he said.

Frazier said although China is part of the economic recession, it will probably not face negative gross domestic product growth like the U.S. because of its large share of international investments.

“This reflects entrepreneurs both in China and outside of China investing money in the future prospects of the Chinese economy,” he said.

Latin American countries are also feeling the impact of the financial crisis, said Robin Grier, associate professor of Latin American development economics.

“Now they’re starting to realize, OK, it was funny when it was happening to the U.S.,” she said. “Now that it’s coming back and happening to Latin American countries, it’s not so funny anymore.”

Grier said Latin America has not been directly involved in the credit crisis, but the value of currency, like the peso, has significantly decreased. She said the economic advice from the U.S. has backfired for Latin America.

“Now there’s just a lot of anxiety in the region about what’s going to happen next,” she said.

Countries like Mexico that primarily export goods to industrialized countries will be most affected by the crisis, Grier said. The American recession has also caused a decrease in commodities like gold and oil for many Latin American countries, which is bad for exporters, she said.

Grier said although America and the rest of the globe is in for some hard financial times, she does not think it will lead to another Great Depression.

“I do think we will rebound,” she said. “I think we know a lot more about regulation than we did back in the Great Depression.”

Smith said it does not appear much good will come out of the financial crisis, but at the very least, it may increase cooperation between nations.

“If there is cooperation, it’s too bad it didn’t happen sooner,” he said. “But it often takes a crisis to make it happen.”