America’s Longtime Friend, Colombia, Needs U.S. Help

Courtney Brown — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 17:00:47 +0000

Colombia is facing uncertain and troubling times. Multiple, interrelated crises—including mass social protests, serious fiscal challenges, irregular armed conflict on its border, and the COVID-19 pandemic—are destabilizing the country’s political landscape, economy, security, and society. Founded in 1810, Colombia is the second oldest democracy in Latin America, geographically well-positioned with access to the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea and blessed with ample natural resources.

With a population of approximately 50 million, Colombia has experienced previous political violence and survived almost 50 years of armed conflict with guerilla groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the revolutionary left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) that have resulted in over 260,000 deaths. Colombia’s shadow, illicit economy has been driven in large part by the lucrative cocaine trade, as well as illegal gold-mining and oil-smuggling operations that have sustained insurgent and other armed groups for decades.

This hidden and corrupting economy continues to flourish and fuel insecurity in Colombia, aided and abetted by the neighboring criminal regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Nevertheless, and despite these enormous challenges, Colombia’s legitimate free-market economy is thriving and ranks relatively high in the Americas region of the annual Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom.

US-Colombia Research

To read the full report by The Heritage Foundation, please click here.

The post America’s Longtime Friend, Colombia, Needs U.S. Help appeared first on WITA.

Global Supply Chains In The Pandemic

Jake O'Keeffe — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 18:25:21 +0000

Much of the world is closely integrated through final and intermediate goods trade. As countries simultaneously curtail economic activity by means of domestic lockdown policies, the global economic downturn may therefore be exacerbated by reductions in the supply of foreign intermediates, or demand for a country’s exports abroad. As a result, there is now a great deal of speculation in both policy circles and popular press that the experience of the pandemic will eventually lead to a “renationalization” of supply chains.1 However, it is an open question whether supply chain renationalization would make GDP more resilient to pandemic-type shocks. A shift from foreign to domestic intermediates would also change the structure of the domestic economy, and thus affect the reaction of the economy to a pandemic.

Global Supply Chains In The Pandemic

To read the full report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, please click here.

The post Global Supply Chains In The Pandemic appeared first on WITA.

Pandemic Archives - WITA

America’s Longtime Friend, Colombia, Needs U.S. Help

Global Supply Chains In The Pandemic