The Chicago Boys' plan failed in Chile. Brazil wants to give it another shot

Nov 29, 2018 17:30 8 min read (Updated: Mar 24, 2021 15:15)

On January 1st, Jair Bolsonaro will take office as Brazil’s 38th president. He will do so on a platform chock full of brash and heavy-handed social policies, yet one underpinned by ultraliberal economics and the vesting of extensive power into the hands of economist Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicago graduate.

In 1973, General Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile after a military coup. While imposing his brutal regime on the Chilean people, General Pinochet also handed the reins of the country’s economy to a group of economists, fresh off the plane from the very same University of Chicago.

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The Chicago Boys’ plan failed in Chile. Brazil wants to give it another shot

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