Chile has done consistently well since Pinochet took the helm over for the damnfool leftists...who'll never forgive him for it.
This isn't exactly true. Chile has done consistently well since the early '80s, when Pinochet began to relax his grip, fired the Chicago boys and began to run the state like every other mixed-economy known to mankind. Pinochet's early years, splitting the difference between Franco and Friedman, would not be described as 'successful' (unless you're referring to the ability to disappear union leaders and such).
Chile began to thrive on the ascent of democracy - and has been led, for the last seventeen years, by anti-poverty centrists and social democrats.
Wooderson:
The GDP data does not agree with your analysis of a moribund economy under the early reforms (1975-1982). The general understanding is that the early, radical market-oriented reforms had immediate, drastic, & positive results and set the Chilean economy up for more success in the later 1980s afte tthe international monetary crisis in 1982.
http://www.econstats.com/IMF/IFS_Chi1_99B__.htm#Year ,,Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [ IFS code : 99B.. ]
,,Chile
,, Units: Billions of National Currency (1E-09)
,, From: National Accounts
,, ES Source: International Financial Statistics
, Year , 1948 to 2003 , Percent Change
1 , 2003 , 49819.301 , 7.3%
2 , 2002 , 46411.299 , 6.8%
3 , 2001 , 43441.401 , 7.1%
4 , 2000 , 40575.298 , 9.3%
5 , 1999 , 37138.498 , 1.7%
6 , 1998 , 36534.900 , 5.2%
7 , 1997 , 34722.600 , 11.2%
8 , 1996 , 31237.299 , 10.3%
9 , 1995 , 28309.199 , 19.4%
10 , 1994 , 23714.700 , 23.0%
11 , 1993 , 19276.499 , 19.6%
12 , 1992 , 16123.200 , 26.8%
13 , 1991 , 12720.000 , 37.6%
14 , 1990 , 9245.500 , 25.7%
15 , 1989 , 7353.700 , 24.3%
16 , 1988 , 5917.880 , 30.3%
17 , 1987 , 4540.560 , 32.8%
18 , 1986 , 3419.210 , 28.9%
19 , 1985 , 2651.940 , 40.1%
20 , 1984 , 1893.390 , 21.5%
21 , 1983 , 1557.710 , 25.7%
22 , 1982 , 1239.120 , -2.7%
23 , 1981 , 1273.120 , 18.4%
24 , 1980 , 1075.270 , 39.2%
25 , 1979 , 772.200 , 58.4%
26 , 1978 , 487.506 , 69.4%
27 , 1977 , 287.770 , 123.6%
28 , 1976 , 128.676 , 263.0%
29 , 1975 , 35.447 , 285.3%
30 , 1974 , 9.199 , 702.1%
31 , 1973 , 1.147 , 389.1%
32 , 1972 , 0.234 , 84.7%
33 , 1971 , 0.127 , 29.0%
34 , 1970 , 0.098
35 , 1969 , 0.069
36 , 1968 , 0.047
37 , 1967 , 0.034
38 , 1966 , 0.026
39 , 1965 , 0.018
40 , 1964 , 0.013
41 , 1963 , 0.009
42 , 1962 , 0.006
43 , 1961 , 0.005
44 , 1960 , 0.004
45 , 1959 , 0.004
46 , 1958 , 0.003
47 , 1957 , 0.002
48 , 1956 , 0.002
49 , 1955 , 0.001
50 , 1954 , 0.001
51 , 1953 , 0.000
52 , 1952 , 0.000
53 , 1951 , 0.000
54 , 1950 , 0.000
55 , 1949 , 0.000
56 , 1948 , 0.000
When Allende took office in November 1970, his UP government faced a stagnant economy weakened by inflation, which hit a rate of 35 percent in 1970. Between 1967 and 1970, real GDP per capita had grown only 1.2 percent per annum, a rate significantly below the Latin American average.
...
During 1972 the macroeconomic problems continued to mount. Inflation surpassed 200 percent, and the fiscal deficit surpassed 13 percent of GDP. Domestic credit to the public sector grew at almost 300 percent, and international reserves dipped below US$77 million. Real wages fell 25 percent in 1972
...
During the first quarter of 1973, Chile's economic problems became extremely serious. Inflation reached an annual rate of more than 120 percent, industrial output declined by almost 6 percent, and foreign-exchange reserves held by the Central Bank were barely above US$40 million. The black market by then covered a widening range of transactions in foreign exchange. The fiscal deficit continued to climb as a result of spiraling expenditures and of rapidly disappearing sources of taxation. For that year, the fiscal deficit ended up exceeding 23 percent of GDP.
...
After the military took over the government in September 1973, there was a year and a half of benign neglect of the economy as the regime consolidated its power. When in April 1975, the so called "Chicago Boys" took control of economic policy, a period of dramatic economic changes began. Chile was transformed gradually from an economy isolated from the rest of the world, with strong government intervention, into a liberalized, worldintegrated economy, where market forces were left free to guide most of the economy's decisions. This period was characterized by several important economic achievements: inflation was reduced greatly, the government deficit was virtually eliminated, the economy went through a dramatic liberalization of its foreign sector, and a strong market system was established.
From an economic point of view, the era of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-90) can be divided into two periods. The first, from 1975 to 1981, corresponds to the period when most of the reforms were implemented. The period ended with the international debt crisis and the collapse of the Chilean economy. At that point, unemployment was extremely high, above 20 percent, and a large proportion of the banking sector had become bankrupt. During this period, a pragmatic economic policy that emphasized export expansion and growth was implemented. The second period, from 1982 to 1990, is characterized by economic recovery and a further movement towards a free market economy, although at a slower pace than that of the early 1980s.
...
I won't go into the details of the post 1982 economic reforms under Pinochet, but they trend in the same direction as the 1975-1982 reforms, even if the personnel changed. Click the link for details.
