Joel Brinkley is a terrific reporter and writer now teaching journalism at Stanford University. I thought this was a particularly thought-provoking column. Since Venezuelans in February agreed to allow Chavez to seek re-election in 2012, he has...

As the author of book on what happened when the state of Louisiana legalized gambling -- it's called Bad Bet on the Bayou -- I was interested to see what's being proposed in Bolivia. From my experience covering gambling, I know that it is exceedingly...

I wondered whether Diego Maradona could be the savior when he was named to coach the Argentine national team into the 2010 World Cup. He has had a host of personal problems since retiring, and one-time superstars rarely make the best coaches. After...

Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, asked some very interesting questions in this blog for the Huffington Post. It turns out, however, that the IMF is not disbursing $164 million to the de facto government of...

Several years ago, I reported on the efforts to connect the coasts of Brazil and Peru via a paved highway. As this article notes, it's a long-held dream. It's also a project that offers enormous economic promise -- and the potential of environmental...