Chile's 'Chicago boys' making a comeback in Brazil
Chile's 'Chicago boys' making a comeback in Brazil
BY PAULINA ABRAMOVICH (AFP) 1 HOUR AGO
They were the architects of the "shock" economic politics that some claim galvanized Chile's economy under the Augustin Pinochet dictatorship.
Now the so-called "Chicago Boys" are back with a bang under far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro's government in Brazil where it's hoped their neoliberal policies will save an asphyxiated economy.
Two years after the US-backed coup d'etat that deposed the democratically elected socialist leader Salvador Allende in 1973, economists with postgraduate degrees from the University of Chicago convinced military dictator Pinochet to apply their policies to fix the failings of the previous administration.
After a crash in gross domestic product of 12.9 percent in 1975, the disciples of the ultraliberal economist Milton Friedman launched a recovery program that privatized some 400 companies, reduced the public sector and almost completely liberalized the economy.
In a second stage, health, education and pensions were largely privatized.
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http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/chile-s-chicago-boys-making-a-comeback-in-brazil/article/543697
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