Posted on 02/18/2014 11:27:49 AM PST by Texas Fossil
Are we about to witness a big power shift in Latin America?
Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina are languishing in differing shades of turmoil, steadily losing ground to regional underdogs. The Pacific Alliance, an historic trade agreement between Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Colombia (and coming soon: Costa Rica), has the potential to recolor Latin America’s economic map and introduce some new regional powerhouses to the world stage. As The Atlantic points out, not all the credit goes to the underdogs:
One reason the Pacific Alliance may succeed is the increasingly urgent need to transcend the chronic failure to link Latin America’s economies.
The Alliance would never have become a priority for its four members if Brazil had offered a credible plan to further economic integration with its most trade-oriented Latin American neighbors. Or if Hugo Chávez had been less successful in making free trade a bad word. The late Venezuelan president prioritized political over economic integration, and he was not shy about using his country’s oil to scuttle “neoliberal free trade agreements.” The United States, meanwhile, was too distracted by emergencies abroad and hobbled by gridlocked politics at home to launch initiatives capable of inspiring Latin American leaders.
The newly formed bloc is made up of Latin America’s fastest growing economies. These states boast the region’s most competitive, business-friendly economies and the lowest inflation rates. Current transactions between these countries represent a mere 4 percent of their total trade; the potential for increased financial cooperation is immense. They have already eliminated 92 percent of trade tariffs.
The Latin Lefties are none too pleased with the new arrangement. Bolivian President Evo Morales called the alliance a Washington-led conspiracy. Brazil’s Lula and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa decried the Alliance as a neoliberal takeover.
But while these leaders sulk, their countries continue to disintegrate. Mass unrest continues to roil Venezuela; protestors are fed up with government corruption, media censorship, and a failing economy. An Argentinian inflation crisis threatens economic disaster. Brazil, which the WSJ called a “wilting giant”, faces yet another year of economic contraction. On top of that, the country’s 2014 World Cup preparations are foundering and civil unrest is growing more belligerent (and then there’s Brazil’s upcoming summer Olympics preparation to worry about).
The Pacific Alliance offers a glimmer of hope for a Latin revival. For all their leaders’ buoyant rhetoric and revolutionary zeal, the region’s past powerhouses have failed to deliver in many ways. If the Pacific Alliance is the start of something fruitful, it would be another nail in the Bolivarians’s coffin.
Anything opposing the leftist grabs in Central and South America pleases me. There is plenty of evidence that many countries there are sick of Commie lies and deceptions. And the destruction that lefties bring with them.
(I know, the Atlantic is a horrible leftist magazine.)
Real life is a hard sell, especially when you stack it up against the perfect society that exists in your mind.
Utopians have a much easier time of it because the existing society can never measure up to what they are selling.
They leave wreckage and graveyards where ever they go but the Utopian dreams never die.
bkmk
I don’t use a spear. I will keep my guns.
Thanks.
Prayers up.
Commies know the dreams are a lie, but they are a means to keep a population subjected.
The fuzzy headed academics are the first casualties in a Commie takeover. No longer useful idiots.
They're still idiots. Just no longer useful idiots.
History has shown over and over that a "no longer useful idiot" is something you don't want to be.
I work with a lot of overseas clientele and those in Latin America keep talking about how awesome the economy is doing in Chile compared to the rest of the continent. I wish we could copy their system right into the United States, but I’ve been told the Chilean system is rather specific to them and wouldn’t work as well here.
Kerry and Obama will do something to insure this rising tide of economic freedom will not endanger this country’s recent “progress”.
Actually Hill worked very hard to prevent this. See Honduras. Anything to support the lefties. (like themselves)
ensure. I think.
One of the most important pieces of their economic system (Chile’s) is their retirement system, designed by Milton Freeman and his Chicago economics team many years ago.
Its basic structure would work fine here and would provide a huge boost to our economy and dramatically more retirement affluence to its participants than our current system. It just never will be because of opposition from the Left.
Agree totally. I did see it in Honduras.
Agree.
This is all in cultural context. That is why success is not easily transplanted.
Agree.
Celebrities?
Leftist Phonies and Idiots.
Thanks.
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