New Study on Mexico’s Drug Cartels and the Global War on Drugs

Posted by Cato Editors

Yesterday, Juan Carlos Hidalgo pointed out that Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos became the latest world leader to recognize the need to rethink the prohibitionist policies that allow powerful drug traffickers to flourish. Santos called for a new approach to “take away the violent profit that comes with drug trafficking” and that governments around the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, need to debate legalizing select drugs, such as cocaine.

From Colombia to Mexico, the drug war rages on. Despite two decades of U.S.-aided efforts to eradicate drug-related violence in Colombia, the problem persists. Indeed, the trickle-down effects from Mexico southward now threaten to engulf Guatemala. Costa Rica, Honduras, and El Salvador are all experiencing alarming homicide rates at least partially related to drug trafficking. To address these spikes in violence and stem the flow of drugs, the United States has spent billions of dollars in Mexico and throughout Latin America. Sadly, there is little evidence that this policy has been successful, and the evidence mounts that it has been an outright failure.

A new policy is needed to stem the violence and consequences of the Mexican drug cartels pervasive power. In a new study released today, Ted Galen Carpenter, senior fellow, argues that the only lasting, effective strategy for dealing with Mexico’s drug violence is to defund the Mexican drug cartels. “The United States could substantially defund these cartels,” says Carpenter, “through the full legalization (including manufacture and sale) of currently illegal drugs.”

The new study, “Undermining Mexico’s Dangerous Drug Cartels,” is available here.

Agony of Defeat

Posted by Chris Edwards

Oh, what a burn. My tax debate with French economist Thomas Piketty was a dead heat, 50-50, for the past four days. Then just as the contest was closing, he pulled ahead to seize victory, 51-49.

The Economist editor described the tightly fought battle:

Chris Edwards got over a strong initial disadvantage to narrow what was originally a strong lead for Mr Piketty to a dead heat, but eventually Mr Piketty has prevailed: but only just—even hours before closing, the vote was split exactly down the middle. One could not have asked for a closer contest: this has been the most closely-fought of our 21 online debates, although it began with a fairly substantial lead for the proposition.

Certainly, the debate revealed high levels of interest in taxation and relative income levels. There were more than 1,100 reader comments posted, making it the “most commented” story on the Economist site for the last 10 days or so. My thanks to all the supportive voters and commenters.

Piketty won the website voting battle, but I don’t think he’ll win the war. Global tax competition has led to large cuts in top tax rates in recent decades, and will continue to exert downward pressure for years to come. However, these are dangerous times as governments press to end financial privacy, to create international tax cartels, and to substitute competition with multinational government power in various other ways.