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Can't quibble with this. In Norway, a meal at McDs/BK is about $22-$25. And a bottle of coke about $4 ($1.25-$1.50 in the USA). And these prices give some rough idea of how much more expensive Norway is in general. Incidentally, Norwegians can't afford these prices either and tend not to eat...

Labor cost in fast food restaurants is typically about 20% of sales revenue in the US. Must be less in Argentina since I doubt the fast food workers are paid the equivalent of USD 8 an hour. The explanation for the high prices probably lies elsewhere -- rampant inflation? I'm staggered to hear...

You are quite right. Stay long enough in BsAs and no matter how careful one is, how much precaution one exercises, how paranoid one is, one will be on the receiving end of crime. This risk simply has to be factored into one's calculations; there's no factoring out a certain baseline risk that...

Just finished reading it. I have to say the FCO is no more reassuring about Ecuador than the US State Department.

Has anyone here visited Ecuador? I'm thinking of paying a visit and the only information I have is this from the US State Department, the gist of which is, "Be afraid; be very afraid." Is it really that bad?

Well, look at this recent photograph. Does it look like Osama is dead?

Unfortunately they sense weakness and not making eye contact is usually construed as such. The notion of carrying a knife is silly -- even if the carrier knew how to wield one. The most important thing is not to show weakness, not to show oneself as intimidated -- even if the poise is fake.

The article was okay until it cited Rush Limbaugh.

Very good. You are right and I am wrong. Millions of Mexicans are continuing to pour into the US for the plentiful jobs available there.

This is a more recent story.

You can read more here.

In places like Japan, Norway and Sweden you would not see it. In places like New Orleans, Haiti, and Nigeria you would. Draw your own conclusions.

I hope you didn't just stumble across this insight now. He is a marionette, with no intelligence, character, or conscience. He goes through the motions, utters the words he's instructed to mouth. That's all.

As things stand, the US government has painted itself in a corner and will probably have to resuscitate quantitative easing to fund its fiscal deficits -- which will have a negative impact on those holding dollars and dollar instruments. At some stage of the game it will have a direct...

Today's news is that Bill Gross's PIMCO has entirely divested itself of US Treasuries. More here: [/COLOR][/LEFT]

This is an interesting recent essay by Prabhat Patnaik:

Just to add to your points, here is a link to one site, which shows that of a $2.99 loaf of bread, $0.17 goes to the farmer. More appropriate might be to cite that a 5-lb bag of wheatflour cost $2.89 of which $0.86 goes to the farmer. In the Third World, people are typically buying the flour and...

Knew about this -- but not its extent. Cheers. That's probably (part of) the reason Michael Hudson calls them "hot-potato dollars."

Can't quibble with that and if I had the know-how I would be doing exactly the same thing myself.

But at some point you throw your hands up in disgust and decide to cut your losses. Which for the Chinese will be over a trillion.