Crystal Ball

Wall Street Journal today...


Dear Investors, We're...
Hedge Funds Strain
To Find Words to Say
'Sorry' for Your Losses
By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN
August 16, 2007; Page C1

Running a hedge fund means never having to say you're sorry, at least not in so many words.

That isn't to say some hedge-fund managers don't have a lot to feel bad about. In the past few weeks, some of the biggest names in hedge-fund land -- Goldman Sachs Group, Highbridge Capital Management, AQR Capital Management, Renaissance Technologies -- have certain funds that lost as much as a third of investors' money as stock and credit markets seized up, and stocks moved in unexpected ways, in reaction to the spreading subprime-mortgage debacle.

None of these highly paid managers are prostrating themselves before their clients, begging forgiveness, however. Instead, in letters to clients, they point fingers at other hedge funds, once-in-a-lifetime events and their own computer programs.

Black Mesa Capital, a Santa Fe, N.M., hedge fund captured the "don't blame us" spirit with its letter last week, blaming "unprecedented market events," including "a very large or several very large trading entities, possibly very large hedge funds...liquidating massive" portfolios. The managers, Dave DeMers and Jonathan Spring, said they are taking "unprecedented actions" to fix its problems, a response to the "unprecedented market events." The fund lost about 10% in the first eight days of August. Black Mesa didn't respond to a request for comment.

Forrest Jones in Latin Trade, June 2005...

Player's Club
Hedge funds, once an investment alternative for the super rich, boom across the globe as investors take on risk

Hedge funds, once the mysterious financial playground of Hollywood types, globetrotting Wall Streeters and the Aspen ski crowd, are fast becoming accessible to simply high-income individuals.

Unlike an ordinary investment fund, hedge funds use sophisticated--and almost entirely unregulated, even unexplained--strategies to counterbalance simultaneous exotic trades around the planet, with the aim of being just ahead of the market. Russian currency, oil futures, shorting stocks, whatever is trading hot and fast is a target, and the brains behind the desk race to make bets and clear out before the rest of the market rationalizes whatever information is coming into the equation.

It's the financial equivalent of rocket science, highly leveraged, and can be very high risk if the bets are suddenly and disastrously wrong. Or, they can be an astounding source of nearly instant wealth. "When you invest in a hedge fund you are investing in that manager's skill," says Tom Hayden, manager of Chaparral Capital, which manages US$10 million in U.S. and offshore funds.

Crystal Ball

Fortune editorial online today

The greatest economic boom ever
A lot could go wrong. And it may not feel like a day at the beach to most Americans. But for your average globetrotting Fortune 500 CEO, right now is about as good as it gets, says Fortune's Rik Kirkland.

FORTUNE Magazine
By Rik Kirkland, Fortune

July 12 2007: 9:46 AM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- Just how red-hot is the current worldwide expansion? "This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime," U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson declared on a recent visit to Fortune's offices.

That may come as news to many Americans, whose boom-time memories are stuck in the 1990s, when Silicon Valley was the epicenter of our growth fantasies. But the fellow now occupying Paulson's old office at 85 Broad Street in downtown Manhattan shares that upbeat view. Just returned from a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Middle East, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein waves out toward the East River as he explains how the rise of the "BRICs" has altered his strategy and his travel schedule. (BRIC is an acronym Goldman coined in 2001 reflecting the rising economic power of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.)

Latin Trade in July, 2007

Editor's note: Politicians talk, but companies take action.

Hindsight is 20-20, as they say. A few years from now, lots of people will look back at the stack of stalled trade deals on the desk of the U.S. Congress and say, “Wow, what were they thinking?” Only a decade ago, the idea of lowering trade barriers was considered a bit radical, political heresy and the province of supply-sider economists. Not any more.

Free trade turns out to have been remarkably well-timed for some countries. Peru’s exports are surging. Brazil’s, too. Countries of all sizes in-between are signing deals and looking for ways to beef up infrastructure to deal with it all. The monolithic conclusion that countries lose when they engage in free trade is hugely mistaken.

Economists often refer to a fancy theory known as Ricardo’s law of comparative advantage. Short version is: Countries should compete where they are truly competitive, not struggle in sectors where no natural advantage will ever exist. If you live on top of a coal mine, better get digging. If you eventually learn how to export coal-mining expertise and equipment, so much the better.
While the politicians deal with buffering the shock of all this change (as well they should), companies have rushed forward. And not just big U.S. multinationals, but companies of all sizes in the hemisphere are making money like never before. Our annual ranking of the Top 500 Companies in Latin America, in this issue, tells the story. Look, too, at our exclusive conversations with CEOs at some of the biggest companies in the world, including HP, DHL, Embraer and Braskem.

Companies have figured out Ricardo’s law. One need only look at the huge run-up in global stock markets of recent months to see the surge in action. Big Latin American conglomerates are, for the first time, really knocking hard on the door in developed markets, while foreign multinationals dot the capitals of even small countries looking for able bodies and able minds. Time to get digging.
—Greg Brown

And another...

"Silicon" Jack Epstein joins the 2006 ASBPE honorees for his column work last year. It's getting to be a habit.

Congratulations Jack! We're now at 26 awards in six years.

TABPI Honorable Mention

Latin Trade has won an Honorable Mention in Best Single Issue Category from the Trade, Association and Business Publications International (www.tabpi.org). The honor is for our July 2006 Top 500 companies issue.

This news brings our awards count to 25 awards in six years. Congratulations to all of the editorial, production and design staff for their hard work on the issue, as well as to our friends in sales for their energy and support for our biggest issue of the year.

Latin Trade wins big!

I am extremely pleased to announce three new awards this morning from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. This news brings our award count to 24 awards over the past six years.

Top of the list is Bryan Cooper, who has won our first *national* awards recognition in the competition. He is recognized as a finalist in the "Opening Page/Spread" category for the Mexico feature in LT Elite in September 2006.

Carlos Adese and Marisol Rueda won a regional award for the Wal-Mart feature in July 2006, "Hello World." Also recognized for their contributions to that package will be Gabriela Calderon for research, Bryan Cooper for design and Greg Brown for editing.

Finally, Greg Brown won has a regional award for the "Editor's Note" commentaries that ran in January and in March 2006. This is a relatively new category and I'm pleased we were able to make a dent in commentary.

The ASBPE Awards of Excellence, established more than 20 years ago, recognizes outstanding editorial, design, and web development. With more than 1,000 entries in a typical year, the competition is the largest in the business press. Awards are given in more than 30 editorial, design, and online categories. In addition, the Society annually recognizes a Magazine of the Year in each of two circulation categories.

Crystal Ball

New York Times today...

Graft Mars the Recruitment of Mexican Guest Workers

By ELISABETH MALKIN
Published: May 24, 2007
TAMPAMOLÓN CORONA, Mexico — Cástulo Benavides, a union organizer, came to this forgotten mountain town to tell its men how to get legal jobs in the tobacco fields of North Carolina.
But this year he introduced them to a change in a longstanding practice: the men will not have to pay anyone to get those jobs.

“That’s something that we won with the union,” Mr. Benavides explained to the workers in the sweltering municipal auditorium here. “We are stepping on some people’s toes, and we’re doing it hard.” ... Before planting and harvest time in the United States it has been common for local recruiters to fan out across Mexico’s parched countryside to sign up guest workers. The recruiters charge the Mexicans hundreds of dollars, sometimes more, for the job and the temporary visa that comes with it.

"Silicon" Jack Epstein in Latin Trade, May 2007...

The New Underclass

Expanding an abusive U.S. guest-worker program is great business—and borderline slavery.

When was the last time you paid to work? Latin Americans seem to be doing just that under the current U.S. guest-worker program. Some are even paying with their lives.

Eighty-two workers from Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic have filed a class-action lawsuit against Decatur Hotels in New Orleans, a luxury hotel operator. The employees say hotel recruiters promised them 40-hour weeks and plenty of overtime. Instead, they claim, they received only 25 hours or less and quickly fell into debt since they couldn’t pay back hefty recruiting fees of between US$4,000 and $5,000. It’s the kind of employment scam more often associated with the poorest of developing world economies, and usually seen among rings of sex workers or field hands, not carpenters at luxury hotels.

Crystal Ball

New York Times today...

May 17, 2007
Clash of Hope and Fear as Venezuela Seizes Land
By SIMON ROMERO

URACHICHE, Venezuela — The squatters arrive before dawn with machetes and rifles, surround the well-ordered rows of sugar cane and threaten to kill anyone who interferes. Then they light a match to the crops and declare the land their own.

For centuries, much of Venezuela’s rich farmland has been in the hands of a small elite. After coming to power in 1998, and especially after his re-election in December, President Hugo Chávez vowed to end that inequality, and has been keeping his promise in a process that is both brutal and legal.
Mr. Chávez is carrying out what may become the largest forced land redistribution in Venezuela’s history, building utopian farming villages for squatters, lavishing money on new cooperatives and sending army commando units to supervise seized estates in six states.

Mike Ceaser in Latin Trade, December 2005...

The Plot Thickens
Venezuela seizes private ranches and gives them to the poor, which has businesses—and environmentalists—worried

Anthony Richards' business card describes him as the "administrator" of Hato Charcote, a 5,220-hectare ranch of plains, woods and wetlands in central Venezuela, where thousands of cattle are fattened to become steaks and hamburgers. But seated in his small office at the ranch's entrance, Richards' exasperated tone makes it clear he's administrating less and less these days.

"It isn't easy living surrounded by people who don't like you," the British-born Richards says of the hundreds of government-backed campesinos, landless peasants who have squatted property on Charcote and now claim nearly all of it. Richards accuses the campesinos of shooting cattle, setting fires and cutting down trees.

Crystal Ball

Financial Times today...

Biofuels industry courts private investors

By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires
Published: May 15 2007 20:38 | Last updated: May 15 2007 20:38

As Latin America’s traditional producers of cereals, oils and sugar jump on the biofuels bandwagon, private investors are increasingly being courted to finance a host of new ethanol and biodiesel ventures.

Up to $4bn (€3bn, £2bn) will be needed in Brazil alone to triple production of ethanol from sugar cane by 2020. Brazil produces almost half the world’s ethanol and has secured more than $2.5bn in financing from the Inter-American Development Bank to help it achieve its output goal.


Meghan Sapp in Latin Trade, June 2006...

Sweet Deal

Brazilian companies send ethanol technology abroad to make money, and to improve life in poorer countries.

Brazilian sugar companies are spreading the gospel of ethanol—fuel made from sugar or corn—across the developing world, from the Caribbean to sub-Saharan Africa. Though ethanol has been used as a fuel in Brazil for more than three decades, demand for it only began to pick up after oil skyrocketed on the sudden awakening of the Chinese economy.

As famous names such as U.K. billionaire Richard Branson, Sun Microsystems Founder Vinod Khosla and Microsoft’s Bill Gates write checks into the hundreds of millions of dollars in the race for green fuels, Brazilian companies are already there, doing deals. “Brazil is doing everything it can do to help other countries,” says Paul Wrobel, commercial advisor on sugar and ethanol issues at the Brazilian embassy in London. “It is an intent of Brazil to make the Brazilian experience well known all over the world and make ethanol an international commodity. Brazil cannot be the only world supplier if demand picks up.”

Crystal Ball

LA Times today...

Argentina's Ushuaia rides eco-tourism wave
The Tierra del Fuego city, which bills itself as the End of the World, cashes in as thousands flock to its relatively untouched terrain.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Times Staff Writer

Ushuaia, Argentina — This is a place where "The End of the World" sells. The theme is celebrated in T-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs and posters. You can't get away from it.
"It's the magic of 'The End of the World,' " says Mayor Jorge Garramuño. "As a brand, it is very powerful."

He's talking geography, not Armageddon.

Ushuaia, situated along the picturesque Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego, amid a backdrop of jagged, snow-capped mountains, proclaims itself the world's southernmost city.
...

Foreign vacationers, mostly from the United States and Europe, can't seem to get enough of this rugged and glamorous terrain at the tip of South America.

Nonstop flights from Buenos Aires touch down daily. Hundreds of cruise ships now anchor here during the relatively mild months between Christmas and Easter. The number of visitors to Ushuaia approached a quarter-million last year, double the total five years earlier.

Juan Pedro Tomás in Latin Trade, March 2006

Hotel Patagonia

Patagonia - the southern tip of South America - has become a brand name in the tourism world. Its dreamy landscapes seem to entice ever-increasing numbers of visitors. That's why large hotel chains and smaller Argentine companies want to boost their presence at the end of the world.

The Hilton chain plans to open a hotel during the first quarter of 2007 in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego province. The US$13 million property will have 150 rooms. Yowen Hotel, a group of Argentine investors, will build the Hilton Ushuaia while Hilton will manage the brand and decide the architecture, as well as oversee day-to-day hotel affairs.

Hilton's managers for the region recognize that the "world's southernmost city'' is a great growth market since none of its international competitors are there. The company plans to position itself as the highest-caliber luxury hotel in the area. The new Hilton Ushuaia will have meeting and events salons, a gymnasium, a heated pool, restaurant and bar packaged in a property overlooking the Beagle Channel and surrounded by Patagonian forest, says Tom Potter, vice president for Hilton's Latin American operations. "Ushuaia is visited by a very significant number of foreign tourists and besides, it's the starting point for many trips to Antarctica,'' says Potter.

Crystal Ball

Financial Times today...

FT REPORT - ENERGY IN THE AMERICAS: 'Delicious dream' in decline

In 1976, the future of Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil monopoly, looked as bright as it ever had.

The discovery of Cantarell, a huge oil complex located in the Gulf of Mexico, assured abundant supplies of crude for the foreseeable future and cemented the country's place as one of the world's most formidable oil exporters.

For the best part of three decades oil from Cantarell flowed fast and furious - so furious, in fact, that by 2004 its average daily volume of just over 2.1m barrels ranked it the world's second-fastest-producing oil complex after the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia.

Not only did that make Cantarell by far the most important source of Mexican oil - today it accounts for about 60 per cent of total production - but it also helped turn Mexico into the world's third-biggest oil exporter.

Today, that "delicious dream", as one Pemex official once described Cantarell, is in danger of becoming a nightmare. Production at Cantarell is falling rapidly - according to Pemex, it declined 12 per cent last year and will fall a further 15 per cent this year.

Marisol Rueda in Latin Trade, July 2005...

Slippery Slope
Despite high oil prices, lack of investment at state-run Pemex means Mexico could soon become a crude importer.

After being a virtual gusher of cash for Mexico for many decades, state-run oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) seems to be on the verge of drilling a dry hole. The company faces serious challenges in terms of infrastructure and a critical financial situation that, among other things, keeps it from making the exploration investments it needs to counteract a gradual production decline at its existing deposits. If the situation remains unchecked, in a decade Mexico could become an importer of crude oil, warns Pemex General Director Luis Ramírez Corzo.

For now, the two main problems at Pemex are high levels of debt and the decline of its known oil reserves, according to oil analysts. More money is needed, clearly, but it's less clear from where that cash will come - outside or inside Pemex. New private financing, although not voting shares, is one route, although allowing Pemex to keep more of the cash it generates is another, less politically painful choice, and the more likely path, according to Pemex observers.

Welcome Marisol Rueda

I'm very pleased to announce that Marisol Rueda, our Mexico Correspondent for several years, will be the Spanish Editor of Latin Trade beginning on June 1.

Santiago Fittipaldi, the current Spanish Editor, will remain at Latin Trade, taking charge of developing our high-net worth magazine LT Elite, as well as contributing from time to time to Latin Trade.

Marisol has done exemplary work as a correspondent, landing major interviews including Mexican President Vicente Fox. She will continue to cover Mexico, adding to her role assigning and editing Spanish-language coverage from around the region and the world. You can reach her by e-mail.

Marisol has been a Notimex correspondent in Brazil and holds a masters degree in journalism from Spain. She will be working for Latin Trade from Mexico City.

Looking for stock tips?

Read Latin Trade!

March 29, 2007, 10:08AM

Shares of Brazilian Carrier Gol Surge
By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK — Shares of Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes surged Thursday, after the company agreed to buy struggling rival Varig for $275 million in cash and stock. [...] Gol, the country's No. 2 carrier, said the deal to acquire Varig, Brazil's former flagship carrier, includes $98 million in cash, 6.1 million nonvoting shares and the assumption of $45 million of debentures. It will continue to operate the two as separate brands, with Gol remaining a low-cost, low-fare airline and Varig offering more upscale services.

Brazil Editor Carlos Adese in Latin Trade, March 2005...

Fasten Your Seatbelts
Cutting costs, TAM Airlines follows low-cost Gol's model to cater to Brazil's growing airline business.

[...] Some in the government believe that Varig could be profitable, yet they recognize that the airline's debts are nearly impossible to pay. Executives at TAM and Gol declined to comment on Varig's problems. Behind the scenes, the two companies are quietly negotiating with the government the possibility of taking control of Varig's national and international market share without taking on its overwhelming debts. Other pending items for Varig include the airline's employees pension fund and mileage credits owed to thousands of Varig frequent-fliers. On top of these unknowns, internal disputes rage inside the government itself over the best course for the former airline giant, a sure sign that progress will be slow at best. The battle to save Varig could turn out to be a long flight with many stops along the way.

Adese and Rueda, the dream team

CNNMoney today... good story, nice and clear, quotes a couple of analysts...

Wal-Mart's plan to conquer the world

Failure in Germany, South Korea show the retail powerhouse is fallible. But as its home market shrinks, Wal-Mart has no choice but to find success overseas.

By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer
March 27 2007: 5:01 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite Wal-Mart's wobbly track record overseas, industry experts say it's becoming more crucial than ever for the world's largest retailer to get its international act together, and quickly.

Here's why.

Wal-Mart is running out of room to grow in the United States, its largest market, where it already operates about 4,000 stores. With each new store, it risks eroding sales at older stores.

Sure enough, sales growth at older stores open at least a year, known in the industry as same-store sales, have slowed considerably, growing 1 to 3 percent on average during the last three years from more than 5 percent previously. That puts Wal-Mart behind its archrival Target Corp.

...

Latin Trade Brazil Editor Carlos Adese and Mexico Correspondent Marisol Rueda in Latin Trade, July 2006 ... ONE YEAR AGO... huge detail, Wal-Mart sources, spans the Americas with no punches pulled...

Hello World
U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart leans heavily on Latin America for growth abroad.

Brazilian homemaker Divina Guerra dos Santos is a key target for global retail giant Wal-Mart in its bid to drive growth outside of the United States. As she wanders the aisles of a Wal-Mart Todo Dia in Taboão da Serra near São Paulo her view of the Arkansas behemoth sums up the retailer’s strategy for success in Brazil: “It’s nice, clean, with attentive clerks and the best possible prices.”

The Wal-Mart growth strategy outside the United States is a bet to avoid a crunch that is clearly coming: The U.S market is huge, but it just won’t grow at the same rate in the coming decades. So Wal-Mart is headed around the planet in search of new opportunities. Nearly 41% of its 6,534 stores and more than a half-million employees (of 1.8 million total workers) are now abroad in 15 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico. International sales in fiscal 2006 were US$62.72 billion—20.1% of the company’s total and up 11.4% from the previous year. The retailer also is in Germany, Canada, the U.K., South Korea, Japan and it is just beginning its assault on China.

Crystal Ball

El Mercurio today...

Inauguran red WiMax para Santiago y quince ciudades del país

María Pastora Sandoval, El Mercurio Online

SANTIAGO.- Esta mañana se dio inicio a las operaciones de la red WiMax de Telmex, que cubre a Santiago y quince ciudades del país, y que permite entregar servicios de conectividad inalámbricos de Internet y telefonía.

La inauguración, realizada en la plaza Gabriela Mistral de la comuna de Cerrillos, contó con la presencia del subsecretario de Telecomunicaciones, Pablo Bello.

El representante del Gobierno enfatizó que el significado de este tipo de lanzamientos es que “hay más competencia en lo que respecta a Internet y telefonía, lo que se traduce a mejores servicios y menores precios para todos los chilenos”.


Paul Harris in Latin Trade, September 2006...

No Strings Attached
Chile races to be the first wireless nation in the world, upsetting traditional telecom businesses.

Cities around the world are toying with installing free, wireless Internet for their citizens. Argentine wireless telecommunications company Ertach launched service in Buenos Aires province in March as part of a US$25 million investment. Korea is taking similar steps. In major U.S. cities, the debate continues over how best to close the digital divide by connecting smaller wireless areas into growing “clouds” of free Web signals, which could soon deliver cheap phone calls, television signals and, of course, the Internet itself.

Chile, however, is thinking big: free, wireless, high speed Internet from north to south, covering all 748,800 square kilometers of the country. It would be the first in the world to go nationwide with a long-range Internet technology known as Wimax, a major initiative and a threat, experts say, to any telecom company that misses the boat. “If Wimax replaces the fixed line then the old-style telco is basically bankrupt,” says Ronald Fischer, director of the center of economic application at the Universidad de Chile.

Crystal Ball

Bloomberg today...

Reserves plummet, leaving Pemex 'critical'
THOMAS BLACK
Bloomberg News

Petroleos Mexicanos, the third-biggest oil supplier to the United States, said its reserves of oil and natural gas have dropped by half since 2002 because of a lack of investment, leaving the company in a "critical" situation.

Jesus Reyes Heroles, the chief executive officer of Pemex, said yesterday the Mexican government, Congress, workers and society need to come up with a new model for operating the company, which is state-owned. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, meanwhile, called for shoring up Pemex while avoiding privatization.


Marisol Rueda in Latin Trade, July 2005...

Slippery Slope
Despite high oil prices, lack of investment at state-run Pemex means Mexico could soon become a crude importer.

After being a virtual gusher of cash for Mexico for many decades, state-run oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) seems to be on the verge of drilling a dry hole. The company faces serious challenges in terms of infrastructure and a critical financial situation that, among other things, keeps it from making the exploration investments it needs to counteract a gradual production decline at its existing deposits. If the situation remains unchecked, in a decade Mexico could become an importer of crude oil, warns Pemex General Director Luis Ramírez Corzo.

For now, the two main problems at Pemex are high levels of debt and the decline of its known oil reserves, according to oil analysts. More money is needed, clearly, but it's less clear from where that cash will come - outside or inside Pemex. New private financing, although not voting shares, is one route, although allowing Pemex to keep more of the cash it generates is another, less politically painful choice, and the more likely path, according to Pemex observers.

Latin Trade March issue is out

Click here to see the magazine's digital version.

Carlos Adese and Marisol Rueda, superstars

Wall Street Journal, page 1, today...

In Mexico, Wal-Mart Is Defying Its Critics
Low Prices Boost Its Sales and Popularity In Developing Markets

By JOHN LYONS

March 5, 2007; Page A1

JUCHITÁN, Mexico -- For as long as anyone can remember, shopping for many items in this Zapotec Indian town meant lousy selection and high prices. Most families live on less than $4,000 a year. Little wonder that this provincial corner of Oaxaca, historically famous for keeping outsiders at bay, welcomed the arrival of Wal-Mart.

Back home in the U.S., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is known not only for its relentless focus on low prices but also for its many critics, who assail it for everything from the wages it pays to its role in homogenizing American culture. But while its growth in the U.S. is slowing, Wal-Mart is striking gold south of the border, largely free from all the criticism. Like Wal-Mart fans in less affluent parts of America, most shoppers in developing countries are much more concerned about the cost of medicine and microwaves than the cultural incursions of a multinational corporation.

Latin Trade Brazil Editor Carlos Adese and Mexico Correspondent Marisol Rueda in Latin Trade, July 2006...

Hello World
U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart leans heavily on Latin America for growth abroad.

Brazilian homemaker Divina Guerra dos Santos is a key target for global retail giant Wal-Mart in its bid to drive growth outside of the United States. As she wanders the aisles of a Wal-Mart Todo Dia in Taboão da Serra near São Paulo her view of the Arkansas behemoth sums up the retailer’s strategy for success in Brazil: “It’s nice, clean, with attentive clerks and the best possible prices.”

The Wal-Mart growth strategy outside the United States is a bet to avoid a crunch that is clearly coming: The U.S market is huge, but it just won’t grow at the same rate in the coming decades. So Wal-Mart is headed around the planet in search of new opportunities. Nearly 41% of its 6,534 stores and more than a half-million employees (of 1.8 million total workers) are now abroad in 15 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico. International sales in fiscal 2006 were US$62.72 billion—20.1% of the company’s total and up 11.4% from the previous year. The retailer also is in Germany, Canada, the U.K., South Korea, Japan and it is just beginning its assault on China.

February edition out!

See it at the Texterity site. Click "retry" a couple of times if your machine tells you to do something with cookies.

Recent issues

We've been plenty busy here, churning out issues and keeping our heads down, so it's about time I pointed out some "wins" and great work from staff and corries.

If you missed it, do look at Spanish Editor Santiago Fittipaldi's interview with OAS head José Miguel Insulza. For a guy with every ax in the world to grind (Pinochet threw him in jail, tortued and killed his friends), and heading a fractious and difficult club that includes Venezuela and Mexico and is still taken quite seriously as a political organization (Chávez called him names just after this interview ran), he's pretty cool and quick on intelligent answers.

We asked Mexico Correspondent Marisol Rueda to get out of the capital and write about something non-business, like maybe food. So she headed into the countryside and ended up munching on insects and drinking agave straight from the plant. Now that's dedication! And an excellent piece of writing.

What's the essence of a Latin Trade story? Brazil Correspondent Margarida Pfeifer pitched an idea about Natura, a company we've covered before, with an entirely new angle: They were opening stores, and not based on some idea from the home office in Brazil but from accidental sales happening at a demonstration store in Mexico. Talking about crossing borders. A Brazilian makeup retailer opens a store in Mexico just for salespeople to try stuff out, ordinary people start walking in, then the whole idea of opening shops is translated back to Brazil. Excellent!

In Ecuador, ever the news hotspot now with Correa in charge, we got an exclusive with him that ran as he took office in January. But how you ask, considering we closed that issue in November? Well, María Elena Verdezoto decided the best way was to approach both leading candidates, interview them both as if they had already won (with their agreement), write them both up but then run only the actual winner. Back story: We had to hold that till the last excruciating second as recounts set in. When other presidents began to publicly congratulate Correa, then we said to production, Yeah, okay, print. He probably won. You have the right interview in the magazine.

A great idea drives the story. We see that in action in the executive education feature turned in by Doralisa Pilarte in Washington. I try not to give writers really hard-and-fast instructions, since I know a good reporter will find a better story if she feels she is free to pursue it. Doralisa did just that, coming up with a great trend piece on how b-schools are not only teaching inside corporations, but doing actual business tasks and being measured in terms of return on investment. Great example of how to buck the obvious trend story (businesses want external training) and find real news instead.

Brazil Editor Carlos Adese is a red-meat kind of journalist. He goes for the big interview, the sweeping political story, the exclusive access our readers expect. Then he turns on a dime and writes things like Rent-a-Husband. Love it, just love it.

It's getting harder and harder to write our annual executives-to-watch feature. Partly, it's kind of a worn-out idea, so recruiters and executives are tired of responding to multiple magazine and consultant/researcher requests for the same data. We can understand, and we're working to freshen up that concept for next year. Just for fun, though, we made this year's look at executives on the rise even harder. Under the direction of News Editor Forrest Jones, we set out to name the guys who should be running companies soon, the CFOs and operating heads of major companies in the region. Nevertheless, it turned around great, and the file from Paul Harris in Chile and Lisa Wing in Peru was exemplary work, as usual.

If you believe Marcelo Odebrecht -- and you have no reason to doubt him, he's head of huge Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, which is busy putting up bridges and digging giant tunnels around the globe -- we've already outgrown our capacity to create infrastructure. Not sure if that's a sign of impending financial calamity or poor investment planning, but the notion that a company as big as his is turning down work is compelling. Brazil Editor Carlos Adese nails the important stuff in this revealing interview.

Bloggers?

Do any of you, regular correspondents are not, blog? About what? Where?

I'd like to see your efforts and get an understanding of how our writers are using blogging tools on the Web. Any language, any topic. Send me links here.

Thanks.