Ferguson’s Law Arrives in Guatemala
Guatemala’s 2027 budget reveals a critical fiscal milestone: interest payments on public debt now exceed spending on health, security and infrastructure. This essay applies Ferguson’s Law to examine what that means for the country’s future.
The Republic Montesquieu Could Not Write
In the autumn of 1748, a book with no author’s name left the presses of Geneva. Its creator had spent twenty years writing it and did not dare sign it. The magistrate of Bordeaux, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, already knew what imprudence cost: his Persian Letters (1721) had also been published anonymously, printed […]
When Stealing Stopped Being Shameful
loss. He has no land to leave them, no cattle, no home. Martín Fierro, the character created by José Hernández, has been a forced soldier, a deserter, an outlaw, and a fugitive. He has lost everything, including his respectability. And yet, in The Return of Martín Fierro (1879), when he gathers his sons and the son of […]
When a Country Spends in Emergencies… as It Does in Normal Times
Diego turned eighteen just a few weeks ago. Next year he will vote for the first time and, like thousands of young Guatemalans, he still doesn’t know where he will study, which company will give him his first job, or how much he will earn five years from now. What he hasn’t yet imagined is […]
Less Free Than Athens
Lisandros was born in Phoenicia but has lived in the port of Athens for twenty years. He rents a workshop where he manufactures amphorae to export olive oil. He hires both free workers and slaves. He asked no one’s permission to open his business. No one demands monthly reports from him. If a trading partner breaks […]