MEXICO Mexico might seem a surprising choice on a list of success stories, given the horrific drug violence that has killed more than 50,000 people in the past six years, but what gets much less attention is the country’s economic boom. Growth exceeded even that of much-ballyhooed Brazil last year. More than 700,000 new jobs were created in Mexico in 2010 as factories exported record quantities of appliances, challenging China for a share of the U.S. market. Inflation and debt levels are low, and for the first time in years, net migration to the United States has fallen to zero in 2012, and may have even reversed. U.S. politicians still mostly focus on Mexico as a source of drugs and immigrants, but with Mexico contending to replace China as America’s second-largest trade partner after Canada, it may be time for the United States to start thinking of its southern neighbor as a source of customers and jobs instead.

via These 7 Countries – by Joshua E. Keating | Foreign Policy.