Politics - a thorn in SA economy

You will see more articles about South American equities this year because they have performed really well for the first time in a while. This performance has been lead by Brazil where the MSCI index was up nearly 103% in dollar terms last year. Mexico chipped in with close to a 30% dollar return and Chile an impressive 80%. The question is why? The answer is simple. On the one hand, investors' aversion to risk collapsed following the Iraq war and riskier assets, of which South American equities and debt are a definite part, outperformed. Against this background investors in risky assets...