Why This Coming American Summit May Blow Up for Biden

It seems like things could hardly get worse for President Joe Biden, who faces 8.3% inflation, a baby formula shortage and, according to the latest Gallup poll, a 41% job approval rating. Not to mention managing a global face-off with Russia. But now it looks as though another crisis is forming in his backyard. The US is hosting the Summit of the Americas next week in Los Angeles, and Mexico and a few other Latin American nations are threatening to boycott, and even block any progress it might yield.

In this week's episode Mexico City reporter Maya Averbuch explains the fight over the summit, during which the White House plans to raise the fraught topic of immigration. A key conference holdout has been Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says he'll stay away unless representatives of authoritarian governments in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are invited. The US has refused, citing their undemocratic records. In turn, the leaders of other nations, including Guatemala and Honduras, have said they may skip the summit as well.

In a follow-up discussion, managing editor Juan Pablo Spinetto talks with Stephanie about the drama-filled history of these summits and whether Mexico's president will eventually attend. They also explain why there's a good chance rising interest rates in the US won't trigger a crisis in Latin America as they have so often in past. 

And we end the episode with some revealing research from the McKinsey Global Institute on what it says drives workers' "human capital," or their collective knowledge, skills and experience as measured by lifetime earnings. For all the fanfare over training and education, on-the-job experience accounts for at least half of gains in lifetime earnings, according to institute head Sven Smit. The more new jobs and experiences a worker accrues, the more their earnings will rise, he tells Flanders.

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