A talk by Hal Whitesman, Financial Times' Chicago and Midwest bureau chief.

Thanks to demand from big emerging economies, most South American governments have become increasingly "resource nationalistic" and have ramped up social spending to meet the needs of the poor and the indigenous, causing poverty levels to drop - at the same time as poverty has been on the increase in the United States.

Will the U.S. continue losing influence in Latin America? Will China soon dominate the area both commercially and strategically? Can the U.S. do business with countries from Mexico to Argentina without interfering in their internal affairs?