The long anticipated collapse of the economies of Latin America is already underway. The facts:

1. • In Argentina, the currency devalued over 1,000% in less than four months and was close to a free fall as the Central Bank has no resources to stabilize the market and riots wracked provincial cities.

2. • Brazil approaches hyperinflation now running at close to 1,000% as the government has given up on trying to curb inflation through traditional means and resorted to extensive indexing to enable the people to cope.