• The Left continues gains in Latin America. Alvaro Colom won Guatemala's presidential election defeating retired General Perez Molina, who advocated getting tough on crime by using the "mano dura" ("strong hand") and reinstating the death penalty. Colom hopes to reduce the high crime and murder rate by "lifting people out of poverty." In the U.S. we can only marvel when an electorate is offered such a choice.
   
• Not a dumb blond, supermodel Gisele Bündchen's contract to sell Pantene hair products for Proctor & Gamble requires them to pay in euros. And "Jim Rogers, a former investor partner of George Soros, said that he was selling his home and all his possessions to buy Chinese currency...." In February '05 I noted that mules for the South American drug cartels prefer to swallow euros.

Tags: news and politics