Word: chiles
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...after a military coup overthrew the government of Isabel Peron, an army major in charge of public relations in the city of Cordoba called a press conference. He instituted "temporary" press censorship and finished his instructions by saying, "Remember, I don't want to see any mention of Chile." On March 30, General Jorge Videla, the head of the ruling military junta, announced on national television that his new regime was deeply committed to human rights, based on "profound Christian convictions." The smooth and relatively bloodless coup followed by constant reassurances stemmed from a well-defined plan to avoid comparison...
Pinochet and his military junta had not wasted any time in showing their repressive intentions, and after the bloody coup which overthrew Allende in September of 1973 quickly turned Chile into a murderous police state. The horrified reaction of the world press to the Chilean repression was widespread and still rang loudly in the ears of Videla and his co-conspirators. In addition, a U.S. Senate committee had just published its findings of CIA involvement in the Chilean coup, and the image of a murderous Pinochet aided by CIA support had become prevalent in an uncomfortable U.S. press...
Friedman himself does not defend the results. Says he: "It's absurd to talk about Chile as if it is an important test of my ideas. I don't even know if they have been carrying out my policies." His colleague Arnold Harberger complains that the Chileans have in fact been violating a prime tenet of Friedmanism: that a nation's money supply should expand at a steady but moderate pace. The Chilean money supply jumped 27.5% in this year's first quarter alone. The Chicago Boys retort that they have cut down as rapidly...
...controversy brings up the deeper question of whether Friedman's theories are really applicable to a poor, inflation-ridden country. Says one Chilean university economist: "In an underdeveloped country like Chile it is less possible to have a free-market economy than it is in a developed one. It is a question of size and scale." It is also a question of history: since the 1930s the government has tightly controlled key parts of the Chilean economy. Prices and wages have traditionally been set by the government; the major industries have long been monopolies. Competition, the present Chilean government...
Allende period and the drop in the price of copper, Chile's chief moneymaker, from an average of 930 per Ib. in 1974 to a disastrous 560 in 1975 (it has since recovered...