I don’t pray very often but there are times when events are so catastrophic, so desparate, and so predictable that prayer is in order and Venezuela has reached that point. While Hugo Chavez is big on socialist rhetoric, he has always been very short on actual implementation.
James Surowiecki, the financial columnist for the New Yorker, […]
Archive for the 'LatinAmerica' Category
Jan10th2007
Time To Pray For The Citizens Of Venezuela
Published by in Communism, Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), LatinAmerica and Personal. 13 CommentsDec21st2006
Capitalism In Latin America
Published by in General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 0 CommentsGary Becker, Nobel Laurette in economics and professor of economics at the University Of Chicago, writes on capitalism in Latin America:
One legitimate reason for the opposition to capitalism in Latin America is that it frequently has been “crony capitalism” as opposed to the competitive capitalism that produces desirable social outcomes. Crony capitalism is a system […]
Dec14th2006
In Praise Of Guatemalan Manuel Ayau
Published by in Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), LatinAmerica and Poverty. 3 CommentsThe Washington Times writes about this remarkable man:
More than a half-century ago, after returning from the U.S. with his engineering degree in hand, a young Guatemalan named Manuel Ayau wondered why there was little demand for his engineering services in his home country. Rather than just fret about the sorry Guatemalan economy, he decided to […]
Dec13th2006
The Difference A Dictator Makes
Published by in Capitalism, Communism, Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 15 CommentsWith the recent death of Pinochet, Chile’s former dictator, it is a good time to stop and compare two ideologically opposed dictators - Chile’s Pinochet vs Cuba’s Castro/Che.
The Washington Post writes:
A Dictator’s Double Standard
Augusto Pinochet tortured and murdered. His legacy is Latin America’s most successful country.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006; Page A26
AUGUSTO PINOCHET, who […]
Nov30th2006
Right Vs Left View Of The World
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), LatinAmerica and ModernPolitics. 17 CommentsMichelle Dion, writing in her blog, details the troubling circumstances Mexico is in:
As the time nears for the swearing in of Mexico’s new President, the PAN’s Felipe Calderon, the situation is not looking good. Earlier this month, the PRD’s Lopez Obrador had himself sworn in as President in an unofficial ceremony. Yesterday, a small fight […]
Sep13th2006
“His potential to cause trouble was on display last Friday, as members of his Revolutionary Democratic Party blocked Mexican President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state of the union address before the national congress. They mobbed the speaker’s platform and refused to move. Rather than engage in a shoving match, or worse, Mr. Fox […]
Aug5th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Communism, Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 22 Comments“Two other observations struck me during my visit to Cuba: 1. I don’t think I met anybody who truly believed in communism. I met with high officials at ministries and top people at the University of Havana and official think tanks, some of whom were very intelligent and quite sophisticated, and all of whom left […]
Jul12th2006
Fastest Growing States Vote Conservative - Around The World
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Economics, FreeTrade, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 8 CommentsDuring the last two presidential elections I reported how pro-growth areas, both demographic and economic, tend to vote Republican and anti-growth areas tend to vote Democrat, for example, the European magazine The Economist shortly after the 2004 election reported:
Mr Bush’s optimistic message gave him a commanding advantage in pro-growth America….Most of Mr Kerry’s base […]
Feb16th2006
Bolivia, Before And Now
Published by in Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 2 CommentsJames Surowiecki, writing in the Financial Page of the New Yorker writes:
Twenty years ago, a radical economic experiment began in Latin America. With economies beleaguered by foreign debt and runaway inflation, many of the region’s politicians decided that salvation lay in a program of market-friendly reforms that became known as the Washington Consensus—privatization of state-owned […]
Dec14th2005
The Sad State Of Latin America
Published by in Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 17 CommentsJuan Forero writes in the International Herald Tribune:
Morales gave the kind of leftist speech that increasingly strikes a chord with Latin America’s disenchanted voters, railing against privatization, liberalized trade and other economic prescriptions backed by the United States….
Morales, 46, a former llama herder and coca farmer leader who has a slight lead in the polls […]
Nov21st2005
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Economics, FreeTrade, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 0 Comments“Regarding U.S. policies towards Latin America, there is a double standard everywhere you look. It is crystal clear where Lula, Chávez, Kirchner, Vásquez, etc. want to go. Many ideas and policies of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Che Guevara are being rediscovered and openly applied by them, while U.S. foreign economic policy continues to […]
Nov18th2005
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 2 Comments“The fact is, U.S.-Latin American relations are at one of their lowest historical points. The majority of Latin intellectuals traditionally have felt a deep and secret inferiority complex toward the U.S., blaming it for everything bad that takes place in the hemisphere. They have taught in both public and private schools and universities for three […]
Nov15th2005
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 0 Comments“The new wave of populists is led by Chavez, who’s been using the recent windfall in oil revenues to expand government and solidify his hold on power. But even while $100 million in oil money pours into Venezuela every day ($60 million of that from those terrible gringos north of the Rio Grande), the poverty […]
Nov7th2005
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Economics, FreeTrade, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 0 Comments“I’ll confess that I haven’t been following the details of the Summit of the Americas, now underway in Mar De Plata, Argentina. I also haven’t figured out why economic growth and higher standards of living stubbornly refuse to arrive in most Latin American countries, despite their abundance of resources and proximity to the largest market […]
Oct6th2005
In Praise Of Hernando De Soto
Published by in Books, Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 0 CommentsEl Más Chingón, a blogger friend I met up with in Austin recently, posted a summary of the life and career of Ruben Salazar, a Mexican-American journalist I had not heard of before.
In that same spirit, I thought I would give recognition to a man that few people outside of the economics community have heard […]
Aug23rd2005
The Truth About Sweatshops
Published by in Economics, FreeTrade, General and LatinAmerica. 26 CommentsBenjamin Powell, a professor of economics at San Jose State University, puts sweatshops in their proper perspective:
We use “sweatshop” to mean those foreign factories with low pay and poor health and safety standards where employees choose to work, not those where employees are coerced into working by the threat of violence. And we admit that […]
