“Latin America” on The Daily Caller

China has at least $2.5 trillion in foreign exchange and must, due to its own balance of payments rules, invest it all overseas. Most unavoidably goes into American bonds, the only market big enough to absorb it.[1] However, since the beginning of 2005, the PRC has invested almost $200 billion in foreign assets outside bonds. Official Chinese data are unhelpful, but The Heritage Foundation’s China Global Investment Tracker sorts non-bond spending by country and sector. The tracker is current through June 30, 2010. (more)

A little before noon on a spring day, J.J. Rendón wakes up and dresses as usual in a Jedi-like black frock. He takes a drag on a cigarette and rubs sleep from his dark eyes. Golden statues line his shelves, and water burbles over a Buddhist shrine that’s a centerpiece of his bayside condo in Brickell’s Jade Residences, a 48-story tower with private elevators activated by thumbprint readers. (more)

LIMA, Peru — While the United States and Europe fret over huge deficits and threats to a fragile recovery, this region has a surprise in store. Latin America, beset in the past by debt defaults, currency devaluations and the need for bailouts from rich countries, is experiencing robust economic growth that is the envy of its northern counterparts. (more)

Arizona’s new immigration policy, which requires aliens to carry immigration papers and directs the police to detain “suspected aliens,” has re-ignited debates over how to reduce illegal immigration. Most of this debate involves wishful thinking: the claim that stricter border controls or Arizona-like measures can make a real difference. The reality is that only four policies can significantly reduce illegal immigration. (more)

Here’s a quick list of people who aren’t backing Arizona’s authoritarian new law, which really is representative of the worst we Americans are capable of (this, and sterilizing rednecks): (more)

Truth is a tough mistress. The sting of her whip? Intellectual and moral consistency. Truth frustrates moral relativists and hypocrites alike. Truth is not interested in your voter registration card, which campaign you work for, what Plum Book position you snagged a presidential appointment to, or what “non-partisan” charitable organization allows you a place to park your desk. Truth is just truth. (more)

1980 Malaise & Decline: The media described the 39^th U.S. president’s effect upon America’s economy with one word—“malaise.” Jimmy Carter’s austerity and regulatory policies had promoted state-run economic anemia. Carter-led foreign policy emboldened America’s enemies. Viewed as a minor league player from a peanut farm in Georgia, America’s adversaries welcomed with derision their opponent as if he were captain of the USS Spineless. (more)

Ministers of energy from across the Western Hemisphere will descend upon Washington this week. While they may be able to catch the cherry blossoms, their principal reason for visiting is not tourism. Instead, they have been invited to Washington by Energy Secretary Steven Chu to forge a new chapter in energy cooperation and collaboration in our hemisphere. (more)

Washington collects alliances like people collect Facebook “friends.” As the Falklands Islands dispute heats up again, the U.S. finds itself being pressed to take sides. It turns out that collecting allies can be expensive. (more)

Peru’s most treasured archaeological site, Machu Picchu, has formally re-opened after it was closed for two months. (more)

Pledging to work in partnership with a Haitian-led reconstruction effort, foreign aid donors Wednesday promised more than $3 billion toward rebuilding the earthquake-ravaged country. (more)

SANTIAGO, Chile — Two strong offshore tremors jolted the coastline of southern Chile on Friday morning striking close to the epicenter of the earthquake that devastated the country a week ago. (more)

Over the course of good years and bad, the countries of Latin America have recently been taking diverging paths to very different futures. (more)

We’re facing extraordinarily challenging fiscal times. So as the president’s budget makes its way through the halls of the Capitol, lawmakers will carefully scrutinize every account, every program, and every initiative—as they should. (more)

One month ago, singer Wycef Jean’s “NGO” (for”Non-Governmental Organization) called “Yelle Haiti” raised just over $1 million to help victims of the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake. At the time, scores of non-profit organizations sprang up to announce some kind of effort to assist the quake-damaged country. (more)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The police in El Salvador have begun an investigation into whether a man suspected of leading a trafficking ring involving Central American and Caribbean women and girls is also a legal adviser to many of the Americans charged with trying to take 33 children out of Haiti without permission. (more)

Costa Rica has elected its first female president in a landslide victory, marking another political milestone for women in Latin America. (more)

Steve Corbett, author of “When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor … and Yourself,” has some advice for churches looking to get involved with earthquake-ravaged Haiti: “Don’t start something new right now.” (more)

President Obama is likely to meet with congressional roadblocks, if, as he promised in last week’s State of the Union address, he intends to pursue a policy “that opens global markets.” (more)

Abstract: In the real world, as opposed to what French President Nicolas Sarkozy calls President Barack Obama’s "virtual world," America faces the reality of Iran’s intransigence and aggressiveness; China’s headlong pursuit of its own national, regional, and global interests; Russia’s determination to regain its Near Abroad; the Arab states’ refusal to accept any kind of a reasonable settlement of the kind that Israel has already offered under several governments; Syria’s designs on Lebanon; and Hugo Chávez’s designs on the weaker countries in Latin America. President Obama’s foreign policy agenda of gradual American retreat will have inexorable consequences: When erstwhile allies see the American umbrella being withdrawn, they will have to accommodate themselves to those from whom we were protecting them. If Obama proves impervious to empirical evidence and experience, all these accommodations, the weakening of alliances, the strengthening of centers of adversarial power in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Caracas, and elsewhere will continue until we are awakened by some cataclysm. (more)