Evo cree que EEUU filtró archivos secretos · la-razon.com

We can't win; Evo Morales believes that Wikileaks is part of a US government plot to sow dischord in the Latin American region.

Evo cree que EEUU filtró archivos secretos · la-razon.com

W.T.O. Upholds U.S. Tariffs on Chinese Tires - NYTimes.com

Wow... after all that, the WTO rules on our side. I'm really surprised!

W.T.O. Upholds U.S. Tariffs on Chinese Tires - NYTimes.com

AFP: Mogadishu's 'first tourist' puzzles immigration officials

Hilarious.

AFP: Mogadishu's 'first tourist' puzzles immigration officials

What’s the most effective development intervention we know? – Chris Blattman

A fascinating and brief post on the role of immigration in promoting economic development.

What’s the most effective development intervention we know? – Chris Blattman

The Fair Trade Challenge to Embedded Liberalism1 - Ehrlich - 2010 - International Studies Quarterly - Wiley Online Library

An interesting paper here that argues that fair-trade advocates shouldn't be treated as traditional protectionists, because, in fact, they have different concerns from protectionists. Something that intuitively makes a great deal of sense, but which I had never considered very deeply.

The Fair Trade Challenge to Embedded Liberalism1 - Ehrlich - 2010 - International Studies Quarterly - Wiley Online Library

Property Rights and Financial Development: The Legacy of Japanese Colonial Institutions

An interesting paper here that, like other work by Daron Acemoglu, uses military action--in this case, by the Japanese prior to the second World War--as a natural experiment examining the effects of property rights on later economic development. They find that the creation of formal property rights are associated with economic growth and infrastructure improvements around the Pacific basin.

Property Rights and Financial Development: The Legacy of Japanese Colonial Institutions

New cables reveal frank U.S. views on Latin America, from Argentina to Venezuela | La Plaza | Los Angeles Times

More incredible revelations about US foreign policy, including:

1. Cuban intelligence has a lot of influence in Venezuela

2. The US is concerned about Iran's influence in Bolivia and Venezuela, and

3. Everybody thinks the Kirchner family is nuts, including the Chileans.

Any actual _news_ coming out of this?

New cables reveal frank U.S. views on Latin America, from Argentina to Venezuela | La Plaza | Los Angeles Times

Santa Cruz será sede del cuartel del ALBA · la-razon.com

Haven't blogged in a long time, but this seemed worthwhile to highlight; Bolivian newspaper _La Razon_ is reporting that the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, will be the military training headquarters for Hugo Chavez's ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America) left-wing alliance, including a new military academy.

The irony is that Santa Cruz is the center for right wing anti-Morales types.

We'll have to follow this in the weeks to come.

Santa Cruz será sede del cuartel del ALBA · la-razon.com

Blanning on Coffee

The percolator is, as we should all know by now, both the foundation and fountainhead of Anglo-American liberty:

As the number of public spaces proliferated during this period, so did opportunities for the exchange of information, ideas and criticism.  An exemplar was the coffee-house.  Within fifty years of the founding of the first in Europe--in Venice in 1645--it had spread across the continent, reaching London in the early 1650s.  By 1659 Samuel Pepys could record that he had been to the Turk's Head coffee-house in New Palace Yard, close to Parliament, and had heard 'exceeding good argument against Mr Harrington's assertion that overbalance of propriety [property] was the foundation of government'.  For the price of a cup of coffee (although many other beverages were on offer), anyone decently dressed could join in debating the issues of the day.  The newly restored Charles II took a dim view of the freedom expression that prevailed there...

The notion of "public spaces" and the way they permit civil society to function may be the most important part here.

The recent controversy involving Starbucks and the open carry folks (crazies?) may be a good modern example of the ways in which public spaces (though privately owned) can promote political mobilization. 

Blanning on the American Revolution

Another interesting quote from Tim Blanning's book The Pursuit of Glory:

On the American side, there was some confusion, or at least disagreement, as to whether they were conservatives fighting to defend old liberties in the plural or revolutionaries fighting for liberty in the abstract.  Sensibly, the Continental Congress put the two together in  their Declaration of Rights of 1774, appealing to 'the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters and compacts'.

So, the American revolution was both religious and secular, and both radical and conservative?