Quote:
Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
The NPR piece I linked to talked about these Chilean economists that went to the University of Chicago in the 50s and 60s under a US government program to spread the free market concept in Latin America.
They were Ivory Tower types until the coup. They were put in charge of the economy when Pinochet came into power in 1974. The article said that there was initial recovery until the debt crisis in the early 80s, and Chile was hit the hardest of all the Latin American countries. It seems that the current recovery started in the early 1990s.
The arcticle points out that the current government is socialist.
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Can you please cite this article. My understanding was that Pinochet brought in the "Chicago Boys". Pinochet wrote a constitution where he promised to leave by 1989. Which was when he did leave, although he didn't completely honor his promise by making him self permanent head of the Army. The socialists did come to power, but they did not touch one of his economic policies. The same is true today. They call themselves socialist but they have not nationalized a thing. Pinochet also started a privatised social security system that the government has not touched, and Clinton used to go around saying how great it was. Chile had the highest growth rates of any latin American country during the late seventies and eighties and was hit the least hardest by the debt crisis. Chile was the only country in Latin America during that time to have a stable currency and low inflation (except for Costa Rica). Maybe T-Rex can find the section on Chile from Commanding Heights, like he did Gorbachaves quotes. In that series they explained the whole process.
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I think this may be what you're talking about, but you'll see that it doesn't quite hold Chile up as the model you suggest. --t.s.]
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