Eliana Cardoso, a professor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and former World Bank economist, explores the balance between Brazil's sustained economic growth and China's hunger for commodities. She says that worldwide economic turmoil may affect trade quotas and put Brazil's economic prospects at risk.

Since President Alvaro Uribe took office in Colombia five years ago, the country has made progress in boosting security. AS/COA President and CEO Susan Segal writes that the time has come for U.S. Congress to approve a bilateral trade agreement as the "single most effective tool to help bring economic and political security to Colombia."

Schering-Plough's Pierre Verstraete encourages Latin American legislators to implement strong intellectual property rights for pharmaceuticals to boost funding for more drug research and development projects in the region.

The number of immigrants—mostly from Latin America—jumped in southern U.S. states over the past decade and a half. As studies on acculturation rates indicate, southerners' practice of demonizing immigrants because they "refuse to assimilate" can contribute to delays in assimilation, explains Elaine C. Lacy of the University of South Carolina at Aiken.

In a Viewpoints Americas article, Chairman and CEO of Google Eric Schmidt analyzes company measures to protect and increase user privacy. He also calls for implementation of global privacy standards.

Although U.S. media and foreign policy institutions have turned attention to other parts of the world, "Latin American seems to have fallen off the radar," writes Ludovico Feoli, who directs the Centro de Investigación y Adiestramiento Político Administrativo in Costa Rica. Yet U.S.-Latin American interests remain intertwined given burgeoning trade relations; growing cultural links stemming from migration; and common security threats such as the drug trade and environmental degradation.

In the next 25 years, the large scale retirement of baby boomers presents the potential for major shifts toward racial integration in the U.S. labor market, writes Richard Alba of University at Albany, SUNY.  Alba predicts that, as well-paid retirees leave the labor force, immigrants and non-whites could rise to fill positions, leading to "unprecedented diversification."