The Londoner

This is the view by economist on this issue. Feels interesting.   http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21678242-forbidding-policies-take-economic-toll-no-golden-door?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/nogoldendoor

Lazaro Ramos and Camila Pitanga are two well-known and well-loved Brazilian stars - they played the leading couple in the soap Lado a Lado (Side By Side). And they were expected to play a key role in the World Cup group stage draw on 6 December, in the state of Bahia - the historic heart of African-Brazilian culture. When news emerged that the draw would instead be led by the blond, white couple , Fernanda Lima and Rodrigo Hilbert, there was outrage on blogs, forums and social media  in Brazil. "Fifa, we want Lazaro Ramos and Camila Pitanga, ok? They are our face, our people, and we love them!" was  one tweet . "As if we weren't already self-sufficient when it comes to racism, Fifa comes over to lend us a hand," was  another . US film director Spike Lee even  chimed in  with criticism of Fifa's power over the game. Many demanded an explanation - and in the absence of one, were quick to come to their own conclusions. Read the full story here.  ...

When Spanish banks led by Santander and BBVA – along with a host of Spanish non-financial companies – began investing heavily in Latin America in the 1990s, it was quickly dubbed a “reconquest” of the New World by its original colonial masters. Nearly two decades later, the parallel is even more striking. Just as the continent’s gold and silver mines did 400 years ago, Latin America’s banking industries are providing a basis of support and defence at a time of increasing insecurity in Spain. Last year, Santander and BBVA made more money from their operations in Latin America than they did at home. This year, reckons Credit Suisse, more than €5bn of Santander’s estimated €7bn of profits will come from Latin America, with Brazil generating more profits than its operations in Europe (including the UK) combined. Of course, one reason for the rising importance of Latin America for both banks is the dwindling role played by profits at home. In the past few years, the sig...

It is a culmination of the so-called “reconquest”, which in the 1990s saw European companies invest heavily in Latin America. What then seemed risky bets are now proving to be an El Dorado . Ravaged by the eurozone recession, such companies are increasingly using their Latin American operations to repair troubled balance sheets at home. This is especially true for Spanish and Portuguese companies, for which Latin America accounts for 15 per cent and a third of revenues respectively, according to Morgan Stanley. “The expansion of Spanish companies into Latin America was their first step to become global. Now it has become their way to survive,” said José Antonio Ocampo, a Columbia University economics professor and former Colombian finance minister. Santander , Spain’s biggest bank, has been among the most opportunistic. It raised $7bn in 2009 when it listed its local subsidiary in Brazil . Last month, it raised a further $4bn when it did the same in Mexico. Both operati...

By Guillermo Ortiz F  or many observers who lived through the constant debt-rescheduling processes of Latin American countries in the 1980s it is difficult to regard the latest episode of the Euro-Hellenic drama without experiencing a sense of déjà vu. Last week, once again, a new plan was devised by the troika of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank to keep Greece funded and avoid default in the short term, while its economy continues to plummet with no end in sight. After two rescue programmes, along with the largest debt restructuring in history, Greece remains insolvent and eurozone leaders refuse to recognise the need for a new approach. To achieve solvency, a serious debt-relief plan, conditional on structural reform, should be implemented to shift the emphasis from fiscal austerity to recovering economic growth and restoring market confidence. It is time for the IMF to assert a commanding role away from Eu...

Sleek and telegenic, Mexico’s Enrique Pena-Nieto was sworn in as president for a six-year term on Saturday. It’s been five long months since Mr Pena-Nieto won the presidential elections amid allegations of fraud and protests. Critics describe him as a pretty face lacking substance; supporters say he’s the Mexican Kennedy while female fans have named him “the hunk of hunks”. But Mr Pena-Nieto is no fool; he’s managed to take Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party to the front line of politics after 12 years of exile and he’s surrounded himself with highly educated, ambitious aides. Mr Pena-Nieto, 46, enters the presidential residency of Los Pinos at a time of growing enthusiasm and expectation in Mexico following a decade of disappointing economic growth- the Mexican economy was badly hit by the global financial crisis in 2008; largely due to its over-reliance on U.S. domestic demand, which accounted for approximately 80 percent of its exports. Mexico’s gross d...

NEW YORK — An open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama: Dear President Obama: Like many people around the world, I am heartened by your re-election, which I see as an opportunity to continue and improve on your social policies. As you know, relations among nations many times have a psychological connection, aside from their obvious historical one. Because of that, relations among or between nations can contribute to the creation either of a climate of antagonism and war or of cooperation and peace. Nowhere is this truer than in the relationship between the United States and Cuba. Mainly because of internal political considerations, both countries have chosen the path of antagonism. While the influence of the Cuban lobby in Florida dictates U.S. policy toward the island country, keeping alive the antagonism with the U.S. agglutinates the Cuban people's support for the Castro brothers. The commercial, economic and financial embargo imposed by the U.S. o...

Cuba's decision this week to make it easier to leave and enter the country is unlikely in the short term to prompt a sudden exodus, but could result in a rethinking of preferential treatment Cuban migrants have long received in the United States. Alarmed by the number of Cubans arriving in Miami for economic reasons, rather than the political causes that prompted earlier waves of migration from the island, even s o me Cuban exiles are increasingly questioning a decades-old law that has guaranteed Cubans safe haven in the United States. passed during the Lyndon Johnson administration to adjust the status of some 300,000 Cubans who found themselves in legal limbo after fleeing Cuba's socialist revolution of 1959, arriving in the United States on temporary refugee visas. The law was unusual, as it did not require the Cubans to make a case for political asylum, and automatically...

JUST OUTSIDE SANTA CLARA, a city in central Cuba, in a hotel that was once a Communist Party hospitality centre, a trio of musicians entertains a large group of German tourists. The trio belts out “Hasta Siempre, Comandante”, an anthem to Che Guevara, whose capture of an armoured train at Santa Clara prompted the collapse of the Batista dictatorship. “I wouldn’t sing this song for an audience of young Cubans. But it has international resonance,” explains one of the trio. Then they strike up “Chan Chan” from the Buena Vista Social Club. That music is associated with the Batista years, consigning its elderly practitioners to neglect under communism until Ry Cooder, an American, turned them into international superstars in the late 1990s. In a confusion the government has happily exploited, they have become incongruous icons of the Cuban revolutionary myth. Read the full story here.