Smart Reads December 11, 2012

December 11, 2012 2:16 pm by Amie Tsang

Attacks on central bank independence are on the rise around the world, particularly in Japan, where Shinzo Abe has made the BoJ a key issue in Sunday’s elections.
Progress in Mexico means the country is no longer regarded as a security-problem-with-an-economy, but rather an economy-with-a-security-problem, argues John Paul Rathbone.
Critics of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt say that the organisation’s autocratic tendencies are coming to the fore, with the lines delineating the organisation, its political arm (the Freedom and Justice party) and the presidency becoming blurred.
There are things to worry about in Egypt’s new constitution, but the real problems lie in the holes and ambiguities, says Nathan Brown in Foreign Affairs.
In Mozambique, an ambitious scheme, to create a “growth corridor” running from the Indian Ocean port of Beira to Zimbabwe’s eastern border, aims to transfer subsistence farmers into smallholders supplying big food purchasers.
Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, has shown “a surprising and unsettling sympathy for Africa’s despots” and if President Barack Obama plans to focus on Africa’s development in his next term, he should nominate someone other than Ms Rice, argues Salem Solomon.

The World