■"Brazil Weathers Scandal Well: Threat to Da Silva Doesn't Becloud Markets, Currency or Growth," by Matt Moffett, Wall Street Journal, 22 September 2005, p. A15.

For a while now, Brazil's been suffering through the sort of senior political corruption scandal that's routinely torpedoed Latin American governments (along with their economies) in the past.

But not this time in Brazil, which is growing well, exporting better than ever (the "breadbasket" phenom I describe as the basis for Brazil's emerging agricultural superpower state in BFA), and attracting foreign direct investment just fine. Currency's also trading at 40-month high.

What gives? The article asks.

Ag exports and global liquidity help, but the biggest deal is a series of rule-set resets in the public and private sectors (opening economy to imports, privatizing state industries, limits on government spending).

Simply put, good rules, good credit, even when politics sours. A real Core country can withstand bad politics because politics in general become fairly irrelevant.