What’s good for Mexico—a new, coherent growth strategy—might be good for Latin America. The real news, though, is that, in a world where the United States has abdicated its leading economic policy role, at least some Latin leaders are again beginning to think about defining their own future course.

With Iraq and other priorities competing for the attention of U.S. policymakers, the question of Bolivia is overlooked. But, situated in the heart of South America, with the second-largest natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere, Bolivia's unsettled course bears close watch.

In the end, elections in the hemisphere will produce governments with which the US will share more in common than not. The trick will be to remain engaged with those governments as they tackle the difficult problems of addressing structural poverty, exclusion, and inequality with respect for democratic institutions and rights.

It hasn't happened often in recent years, but some good economic news is now coming out of the Caribbean.

Just as markets tend to overshoot, so does political analysis, and recent commentary on Latin America is exhibit A.