Thursday 22 September 2011

Maybe it's pink in more ways than one

The Financial Times, the famous pink newspaper which is supposed to be impressed by high growth rates other things which can be graphed, has published this on the Piñera government.

In trying to understand why Piñera is unpopular despite a robust economy, they hit the nail on the head:
Businesses have shareholders; states have citizens. Companies have employees – who willingly surrender some degree of their personal sovereignty in return for a wage. In countries, or at least democratic ones, everyone feels entitled to play a role. Corporate boards have executives – who perform delegated roles that the CEO, by and large, orders them to do. Governments have ministers – who are political collaborators and interlocutors, not just subordinates.
Ouch.
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Monday 19 September 2011

The Argentine Model

Here's a little something Francisco Javier Díaz and I have written on the Argentine model. We are not the first to notice the similarities with what is happening in the US, Greece, and elsewhere. Our point is not that others should do exactly what Argentina did, but rather, that what the Argentine case shows is that business as usual doesn't work, and usually just deepens the crisis. The only actor who can get a grip on what is going on is the state. The idea that this crisis was caused but too much spending is just wrong. It was triggered by a mortgage crisis which resulted in a banking crisis which turned into a crisis of confidence. The rest, as Hillel said, is commentary.
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Sunday 11 September 2011

Eleven


In Chile 9/11 is a particularly heavy date. Yet judging by the front pages of the main newspapers this morning, both the Chilean and US significance seems to have gone largely unnoticed.

Here is my take on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, written for El Dinamo.
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Thursday 8 September 2011

Buenos Días a Todos

Been travelling, so haven't had much time to post.

But the past week in Chile has been marked by death. Last Friday, an Air Force airplane crashed into the Pacific as it was trying to land on Juan Fernandez island, carrying aboard a team of journalists from the national television network (TVN) as well as Air Force personnel and the head of an NGO which was set up to help islanders in their post-tsunami reconstruction. The accident has shocked Chile: