Monday, October 10, 2011

Content Dump

I am in the middle of a particularly busy stretch of existence, which does not mix well with my preferred lifestyle of frequent glasses of beer and generally sloth-like movements. Consequently, I have about a million Firefox windows open with stories I wanted to post on, but haven't had the chance to do so in any depth. So, I'm just going to post them all, no translations and little commentary. Enjoy!

Richard Ford is in Mexico, likes Obama, talks with Milenio.

Calderón wanted a coalition government in 2006, but the PRI rejected the offer, according to PRI Senator Francisco Arroyo.

Alejandro Hope writes about the myth of money laundering as a potential weapon against Mexican gangs. Coincidentally, I've recently spoken with some criminologists about this topic for something I'm working on, and they're all essentially unanimous that cracking down on money laundering is a fool's errand. The gap between the commentariat narrative and the academic consensus is just huge here. In any event, this is a myth I partially accepted (though thankfully one that I didn't ever exert much energy writing about, and  stopping the bulk cash shipments never seemed feasible to me) for a long time, for which I apologize and am glad to have been shown the light.

Gary Moore says there is no such thing as a good guy cartel in Mexico. I largely agree, and I was trying to get at a similar point here. I'd say that makes High Point-style interventions in Mexico a bit trickier for the time being.

A Los Pinos spokeswoman said that the security fight is a long-term struggle. This realization in 2006 should have seem to have motivated a greater emphasis on consensus and political sustainability from the Calderón administration.

Jorge Fernández Menéndez wonders what the PRI will do about Manlio Fabio Beltrones.

Macario Schettino celebrates Steve Jobs, and wonders when Mexico will produce a comparable figure. Ricardo Raphael weighs in as well.

According to a study by the Tec de Monterrey, insecurity costs Mexico some $20 billion a year. Although...that's an interesting figure, but arriving at any meaningful number requires the consideration of so many counter-factuals and third-order effects that it's really hard to put much stock in any such statistic.

The IMF is gloomy about Mexico's short-term economic future, thanks to the US slowdown.

José Antonio Crespo laments the demise of reelection. Again. (Again the demise, I mean, not again the lament, though of course it's probably not the first time he's complained of it.)

The Zeta bosslady known as La Flaka used to be a model police officer, and was actually wounded in the line of duty two years ago. Milenio Semanal runs down her Vader-esque turn.

The US says that Chapo Guzmán "dominates" drug trafficking in the US, yet as always doesn't say what that means.

Jorge Chabat thinks Felipe Calderón is coming around on drug legalization.

The Mexican budget doesn't spend enough on education.

Fourteen of the 32 state police chiefs (Mexico City included) are led by military men.

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