Peru

The U.S. stock market's recent gyrations have many investors ready to look overseas for better returns. But it's a complicated world out there, which is why many less-experienced investors are still sitting on the global sidelines. Here's what you need to know make investing in emerging markets a little less scary.

They're gearing up for a potentially damaging round of currency interventions to help keep their economies competitive, especially against China. Says Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega: "This is a currency war that is turning into a trade war."

The big winners of 2010 scored returns far above those of U.S. markets by piggybacking on China's ferocious growth. But rebounding American equities look mighty impressive next to the year's real losers: the victims of the eurozone debt crisis.

The U.S. is hardly alone in losing work to cheaper skilled labor in foreign countries. Australia, Canada and Israel, among others, have dropped off Gartner's list of the top 30 countries for outsourcing. Here's where IT and business-processing jobs are heading.

Microloans for small businesses have taken off in Peru, where informal employment is high and access to credit is low. The nation now ranks No. 1 in the annual Economist Intelligence Unit survey of world's best business environments for microlending.

Political upsets in Peruvian regional elections could indicate a national shift to the left -- and some business leaders worry that could discourage foreign investment in the country, which has rich natural resources such as oil, gas and gold.

It seems the art of the Ponzi scheme is universal. A French woman has just been busted for bilking thousands of South Americans out of their cash in return for...magic cheese?From seaweed to caffeine, wheat germ to wine grapes, the list of "secret" ingredients that cosmetic companies use is long,...

Worker's in Peru can't be fired for being drunk on the job, the country's top court has ruled. The Constitutional Tribunal ordered that janitor Pablo Cayo must be given his job back by the municipality of Chorrillos after being fired for being intoxicated at work, Reuters reports. One of the...

Over the past few weeks, as the stock market has had bigger mood swings than Judy Garland popping pills on Christmas day while riding a roller coaster during an earthquake, the news has almost entirely focused either on the travails of average Americans or on the morally repugnant machinations of...