Destroying Latin America: Journalist Mary O'Grady on Populism, Protectionism, and Prohibition

"The inequality produced by liberty: This, for the socialist, is the soft underbelly of pro-market rationale and the best place to attack," says Mary O'Grady, a columnist who covers Latin America for the Wall Street Journal. "I would argue that it's the intellectual stream that prevails in Latin America, and it's the reason the region can not hope to reach its potential any time soon."

O'Grady made a presentation at Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation's annual donor event. He talked about why Latin American countries are so susceptible to socialism and identified the "three P's" of "Populism, Protectionism, and Prohibition" as the primary sources of the region's biggest problems.

About 32 minutes. Filmed by Joshua Swain and Anthony Fisher. Edited by Zach Weissmueller.

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[bjarnet3]

This is amazingly good,, I have never heard of Mary O'Grady before... But I want to say one positive thing. Do not under-estimate the power of Youtube and Internet "spreading the ideas and importance of liberty". They now have Mises Brazil, and look how influencal Ron Paul has been to "specially the young people" in the world.

[Moragauth]

The US is nowhere near free market capitalism. Stop lying.

[Kevin J]

This view of Latin America is pretty distorted...

[HitmarkJ]

Is she part of the Tea Party?

[drlophowilliamsii]

By the way, I really enjoyed this video!!!👍

[drlophowilliamsii]

My wife is Bolivian and it's sad to see their government destroying the entrepreneurial spirit within the nation. Many of their professionals have moved to the USA or other areas to escape the corruption and lack of opportunity.

[nphanlon1973]

a demagogue who calls for equality is really saying that if a baby is born without an arm,then every other baby should have an arm chopped off as well to insure equality.

[informaldissent]

Well, no. Don't worry about it now, because I lost interest, but before telling you that post-scarcity economics is not only contradictory but irrelevant to policy decisions in our present world of inevitable physical scarcity, I just wanted you to define in simple terms what you meant by the term 'resource-based economy' to avoid the sort of "oh, that's not what I meant, you're using the term wrong, you don't understand etc" response that usually follows.

[informaldissent]

I was looking more for a definition.

[informaldissent]

What's a resource-based economy?

[marshaul]

Define "deregulate".

[Michael Bruschini]

It is a pleasure to read Mary Anastasia O'grady's pieces in WSJ and now see her speak on Reason!