Many people prefer athletic bodies because they have potential to be fast and strong, which makes them more "useful" when it comes to physical activities. Athletic people are by no means the best at everything, but they certainly seem that way. The same goes for sports cars -- they look attractive to us because they seem capable of delivering superb performance.

One brief look at Mexico's GDP numbers for 2013, and you'd likely say, "What happened?" At the outset of the year, forecasts were calling for between 3-to-4 per cent growth. Instead, the final tally is looking more like 1.2 per cent. That's a pretty sizeable miss. If lots went wrong in the year, foreign investment in Mexico wasn't on that list; in fact, it had a banner year. What's behind this success?