Edwin Ruiz, the reporter for the economic section of the Listin Diario, wrote on Sunday that the “boom” period for the Dominican economy has ended. Using a Dominican folk adage, Ruiz says that the coming years will be the “seven years of the thin cows.” In one of the most extensive analyses of the economic situation, Ruiz revisits the years before 1990, the IMF agreements of 1990 and the following boom. The unprecedented fall in the GDP and the huge devaluation of the peso are tied in to the rescue of the Banco Intercontinental and the Banco de Credito. In comparing the most recent Baninter crisis with what happened in the late 80s, when several banks went under, Ruiz says that the bankruptcies of 1987 and 1990 were paid for by the depositors, while those of 2003 were paid for by the poorest sector of the population, in the form of a 40% inflation rate and a corresponding decrease in the government’s social services.