I first learned about Bolivia in second grade. One of the priests at my parish had served as a Maryknoll missionary in Bolivia, and he visited our classroom to tell us about it. Bolivia had two capitals, La Paz and Sucre, and the women wore bowler hats. To second graders, these were things that made… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Emerging Markets
Egypt: Palace of Desire
To cover Egypt in my Around the World project, I picked up the second book in the Naguib Mahfouz Cairo Trilogy. I read the first one, Palace Walk, seemingly a million years ago. It may take me another million years to get to the third, but I hope not because the first two were really… [Read More]
Bahrain: The Battle for the Arab Spring
Bahrain is an island nation in the Middle East, situated between Saudi Arabia and Iran. It is connected to Saudi Arabia by a bridge; it is divided by religious denomination and social class. It has fewer remaining oil reserves than most of its neighbors, but it has a more diverse economy than many. Other industries… [Read More]
Argentina: An Economic Chronicle
I’ve long been fascinated with Argentina, which was once one of the richest countries in the world. Argentina: An Economic Chronicle. How One of the Richest Countries in the World Lost Its Wealth is the memoir of Vito Tanzi, who was a staff member at the International Monetary Fund who worked on Argentine issues in… [Read More]
Argentina, Chile, and Lessons from History
Argentina and Chile, like the US, were colonial nations, settled by the Spanish. They received independence at about the same time as the US, 1808 for Chile and 1810 for Argentina. Neither had chattel slavery, but Spain’s practices of forced labor in its colonies were notably brutal. Like the US, both are rich in natural… [Read More]
