Expat Files – 09.09.16

#1-Thinking of bringing a USA franchise to Latina America?
Why not? About 95% of the landed franchises are absolutely cleaning up. Still, only a very small percentage of the most recognizable franchises have landed down here, perhaps 10% of the total number and that makes franchising in Latin America seem like nearly a no-brainer. However, meanwhile certain well known franchises like IKEA -one of the most successful franchises in the world- just cannot seem to get a foothold in Latin America, all because of a few odd, surprising and truly unforeseen reasons. Go ahead, take your best guess…

Ilya Somin – Remembering the biggest mass murder in the history of the world

Who was the biggest mass murderer in the history of the world? Most people probably assume that the answer is Adolf Hitler, architect of the Holocaust. Others might guess Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who may indeed have managed to kill even more innocent people than Hitler did, many of them as part of a terror famine that likely took more lives …

THE INVENTION OF A CORPORATE CHRISTIAN AMERICA – Andrew Aghapour

According to author Kevin Kruse, the idea that America is a “Christian nation” was invented only recently, forged by an alliance between industrialists and conservative clergy who preached the connection between Christianity and capitalism. In One Nation Under God, the Princeton history professor issues a twofold corrective: first, to the popular notion that the United States has always understood itself as a Christian nation; and …

Some Disturbingly Relevant Legacies of Anticommunism

More than once, when i’ve been introduced to someone as the former longtime editor of The Nation, that person has asked me: “Did you found the magazine?” And more than once, I have resisted the temptation to denounce the questioner. I am old (82 last July), but not that old. However, the truth is that when, in the late 1970s, I had the …