A CHRISTMAS GIFT THAT WILL BENEFIT MILLIONS – AT 9:25 A.M. ET:  There is political upheaval in Latin America, and for once the good side is winning.  From AP: 

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- After a decade on the advance, the left in South America is in retreat.

Just in the past month, voters in Argentina elected a conservative businessman president over the chosen successor of Cristina Fernandez and Brazil's congress launched an impeachment probe against President Dilma Rousseff, whose approval ratings have been languishing in single digits.

In perhaps the biggest turnabout, voters in Venezuela, where the region's leftward shift began, handed the opposition a landslide victory in congressional elections - its first nationwide legislative win since the U.S.-bashing Hugo Chavez won the presidency in 1998.

The backlash comes amid an economic storm of the likes the region hasn't seen in decades. While all political dynasties are paying the price for broken economies and unchecked corruption, most of South America's governments are run by leftists who came to power as China's economy was taking off over the past 15 years, fueling demand for the region's raw materials.

Now that the Asian giant is struggling, prices for the region's copper, soy beans and oil have plummeted along with its currencies, taking with them the aspirations of millions of families that rose into the middle class on the back of the economic boom. At the same time, U.S. interest rates are rising again for the first time in seven years, adding pressure on borrowers already struggling to pay back dollar loans.

COMMENT:  The changes are good news, but realism is in order.  The left still holds pockets of power in Latin America, and the left is a religion.  It does not change nor give up.  In Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela, conservative reformers still must deal with entrenched leftists in parliaments.  And the Castros still run Cuba.

But change is in the air.  We hope that once Latin Americans get a taste of real democracy and economic freedom, they will not want to go back.

December 24,  2015