Shameless

I thought free market capitalism was dead? Evidently the right leaning Chicago School Of Economics apologists WSJ Editorial Board doesn't think so.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703411304575093572032665414.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_opinion

Its strange but maybe intellectually provocative to cite Milton Friedman's doctrines as an argument that Chile was much better off then Haiti. But where does building codes fit into the WSJ's argument? Milton Friedman actually hated building inspectors and codes, he thought of them as a waste of government finances.

The Chilean Earthquake disaster is just a circus side show for the Opinion Page of the WSJ.

Lets not forget the cozy relationship that Friedman had with Pinochet. Its the same Pinochet that was directly responsible for murdering thousands of people during his 17 year tenure. The Friedman acolytes have conveniently forgiven me for his complicity to this dark period.

What needs to be addressed here is the question of how much credit really is due Chicago School Economics for Chile's current relative prosperity? I say not much. Mining accounts for some 20% of Chile's GDP, and its main business is copper which is dominated by one state owned company. So, lets take a look. Latin America's poster child for free market capitalism is a state run organization of its most prized commodity?

Where free markets have led us is here. The US currently has gone back to the 1920's in terms of income equality.

http://tradersutra.blogspot.com/2010/02/inequality-at-1920-levels.html

Chile also has one of the worst income equality distributions in the world.

http://countrystudies.us/chile/80.htm

They are trying to fix this by? You guessed it raising taxes and social spending. The true lesson here is that when 99% of the wealth is concentrated in the upper 1% of society disenfranchised citizens tend to get riled up. Sprinkle in a natural disaster and what do you get?

I wonder why the Opinion section of the WSJ doesn't talk about Brazil? Brazil's current economic boom began when the left leaning Lulu moved in and raised taxes in 2002. This astonishingly led to a declining budget deficit and faster economic growth, while pulling in foreign investment and increased government spending.

I can't of course forget the commodities boom that ignited most of South America, but the price of copper is directly tied to free market capitalism lest I forget.

Its beyond any sense to say that after 15 years of Friedman style economics, Chile has been helped better to deal with their tragedy. These are the same guys (WSJ) who are so quick to condemn Obama after 13 months.