Boring, but better.

• Author: Brown, Greg
• Position: Economic stability in Latin American countries - Art

A lot of ink is spilled these days over the latest outrage from Caracas or shocking political about-face in La Paz or Lima. What gets less attention, and undeservedly so, is the relative tranquility of the largest economies in the region. Long after the first Summit of the Americas, even as the embers fade around what was supposed to be a hemispheric free trade deal, the predictability of events in the largest countries is fascinating.

As this issue closed, Mexicans had chosen their new president between two front-runners, neither of them part of the old party machine that had gotten fat from decades of running the country into the ground. Brazilians voters are just getting started. Next month, they will vote to reelect or replace leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva but it seems silly, even now, to use the L-word to describe him. Nor is his challenger, former Silo Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin, that far from where Lula lives these days, smack in the middle of the political road.

Of course, the future holds all kind of risks, some real, some exaggerated for financial or political gain. I remember a...