A new issue of Latin American Journal of Economics is out. Nora Lustig (Tulane), Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva (Colegio de Mexico), and Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez (UNDP): The Decline in Inequality in Latin America: How Much, Since When and Why. Nora Lustig (Tulane) and Darryl McLeod (Fordham): Inequality and Poverty Under Latin America’s New Left Regimes. Brazil's economic rise is forcing it to deal with a problem it long regarded as the sole concern of rich countries like the United States: the need to secure its borders and slow down a flood of drugs, illegal immigrants and other contraband. Something extraordinary is happening in Peru. Ecuador’s plan falters: The Yasuni initiative seemed to break a deadlock: it proposed the world should compensate Ecuador for not extracting oil from a biodiverse national park — but the money is not rolling in (and more). The first half of 2012 has been mixed for Latin America. Cocaine Incorporated: How the world’s most powerful drug traffickers run their billion-dollar business.
