Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Tex]

OT Mexico

Mexico has a long tradition of being a non-democratic plutocracy. I'm not looking at the recent (nominally democratic) form of the state in making this conclusion, but the longer history. The state tends to nationalize to seize value and privatize to shed losing enterprises; access is more important than equity in determining outcomes of transactions with government.

The fact that there's a war for control of contraband transit routes is completely unsurprising. (What is interesting is that this comes as something of a contrast to the movement by Columbia toward the rule of law, but that's a different story.) If this were Pakistan, incoming politicians would be calling for military strikes by U.S. forces. This is, however, our good neighbor to the South.

The rules are different.

Take care,
--Tex.