Why are some countries free and others not?

I am to speak on this topic in Buenos Aires (details here) and I was considering the following threads:

1. The Catholic capitalism of the Italian Renaissance and to what extent does it refute Max Weber?

2. Facundo and Martin Fierro, or where Domingo Sarmiento and Steve Sailer go wrong.

3. Why didn’t either the gauchos or the conquest of Siberia lead to the Turner thesis?

4. Why the old buildings in Oamaru, New Zealand remind me of Chile and what that means for the current Latin economic pecking order.

5. What does the pre-war Japanese growth miracle tell us about the postwar Japanese growth miracle?

6. "Betting on refrigerated transport" as a theme in Argentine history.

Or maybe I’ll do something else altogether.

They tell me that dress for the event is "elegant casual."  Yikes!  This, of course, leads to classic cycling in the sense outlined by William Riker.  Since I cannot be elegant (certainly not by B.A. standards), I cannot be casual either.

The talk should eventually show up in print, although possibly only in Spanish in Argentina.  I’ll get you a link if there ever is one.