Chile. General Pinochet entrusts economic policy to neoliberal consultants: the Chicago Boys (from the Milton Friedman school of Chicago). This decision is unexpected, and the reason remains unclear: Pinochet is in no way an expert in economics or finance. Nonetheless, it brings considerable prosperity to the Chilean economy, and several elements of this economic policy will be maintained even after Pinochet’s terrible and bloody dictatorship. Hundreds of companies that had been nationalized under Pinochet are re-privatized, but not the former American copper mines, which remain at least 51% owned by the Chilean state. Inflation drops from 600% under Allende to less than 10%. GDP grows by 10% annually.
