International Affairs

Costa Rica Economy

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Recently I had an opportunity to travel to Costa Rica. Being a rather boring blogger / analyst type, I thought a lot about the Costa Rica economy.

The Costa Rican dollar is known as the “colon“. Being the finance type, I went out to exchange money into local currency prior to entering the country. Most big local banks like JP Morgan didn’t have colones on hand – although they said that they could order the money and I’d have it in a few days – so they sent me to a specialized currency exchange. At this currency exchange there was a pretty wide “bid / ask” spread, or the difference at which they would purchase currency back from you against what they’d sell it to you for, indicating a rather thinly traded currency. I gave them 300 USD and received a big wad of Costa Rican currency – the common denomination I used was the 2,000 note which was a bit over 4 USD. This is a rate of about 500 colones to the dollar, or each one is worth about 2/10 of a cent.

I spoke to a settler from the US who was a Quaker who opened a cheese factory in Monteverde in the 1950s – he said that the colon was worth about 5 to 6 to the dollar in the 1950s. Thus even while the US dollar has depreciated against other major currencies, such as the Yen, the colon has plummeted from 20 cents on the dollar to .2 cents on the dollar, or to 1% of its “relative” value from the 1950s.

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“Well, at least it’ll get the lush off the front page …”

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After reports that the Japanese Finance Minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, was helplessly drunk during the meeting of the G7, doubtless the announcement that the Japanese Prime Minister is the first head of government to be invited to meet Obama lowered the heat slightly in Tokyo. But other than that particular circumstance, does it really matter who’s the first to have a meeting with the new American president any more? Are other leaders round the world sobbing into their hankies? Immediately after WWII, it mattered which nation was so favoured; and after the Berlin Wall came down, the message conveyed by their head of government’s place in the queue to meet the new incumbent mattered to the new former Eastern bloc democracies, but does it mean anything today?

Africa’s World War by Prunier

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Africa’s World War – Congo, The Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe
By Gerard Prunier

I am not an expert on African military affairs but have a high degree of interest in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which many have called “Africa’s World War”. I wrote this post as I started researching this topic and will write additional posts as I learn more about the topic. I hope that this is as interesting to you as it has proven to be to me.

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SWJ: My Interview with Tom Barnett

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The Small Wars Journal has published an interview I conducted with Dr. Thomas Barnett regarding his new book Great Powers: America and the World After Bush.

“Ten Questions with Thomas P.M. Barnett”

…. 4. In Great Powers, you delve deeply into American history. What lessons did you find in our nation’s past that the diplomat overseas, the Army colonel in Afghanistan or the U.S. Aid worker in Africa should know to navigate their mission today?

This is all about frontier integration. Globalization is like America’s rapid and aggressive push Westward across the 19th century: a lot of the same bad actors and a lot of the same tools applied. So don’t be surprised when the Pinkertons show up, or when the covered wagons are attacked, or when the Injuns head to the Badlands for sanctuary. Thus, the goals of our frontline players are fairly straightforward: create the baseline security to allow the connectivity to grow. Focus on social trust and institutions as much as possible, but co-opt existing structures whenever and wherever you can. It doesn’t have to be perfect and it sure as hell doesn’t have to measure up to America’s mature standards. This is a frontier setting within globalization-treat it as such. The good news is, the settlers are already there, with more uncredentialed wealth than we realize (see Hernando DeSoto), if you respect their existing rule-sets and realize they will change only when the locals see the need themselves, so no instant rule-set packages applied by outsiders, please. Finally, acknowledge that with growing connectivity with the outside world, you will see more nationalism, more ethnic tensions, and more religious identity. These are all natural reactions, and not signs of your failure, so patience is the key.

Read the whole thing here.

Special thanks to Dave Dilegge for providing the forum and to Sean Meade and Lexington Green with editorial assistance and astute advice.

Thomas P.M. Barnett, Great Powers: America and the World After Bush

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Great Powers

Thomas P.M. Barnett‘s new book Great Powers: America and the World After Bush is coming out tomorrow. If you go to this this page, Tom has got a lot of stuff you can look at pertaining to the book, including the TOC and promotional material, including excerpts.

I had the good fortune to read the next-to-final draft of the book. I think it is easily Barnett’s best book so far. He lays out his vision of the world of today and tomorrow, and what should be done about it.

I highly recommend the book. You can order it here.

(I am in about 70% agreement with what Barnett has to say in the book. I hope to have a substantial review up at some point, where I will talk about all the main points in the book. For now, I look forward to reading it again so I can write the review.)