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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:20 am Post subject: |
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Phew! I'm glad you cleared that up. I was going through the list: San Francisco? No, a saint. St. Augustine. Another saint. Seattle, no a chief, not a dictator...St. Louis! Hmmm...is a king a dictaor in the usual sense?
Glad you stopped my mind roll. I could have been obsessed all day. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:21 am Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
| joe_doufu wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| There's also that big American city named after a dictator. |
I can't think of any... which one do you mean? Washington? Ha. |
Cincinnati!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnatus |
Oh, interesting. But he was a dictator during the Republic era... a temporary job by popular request. Sometimes happened during war. He wasn't a "dictator-for-life" aka emperor like Caesar and his heirs.
I was flattering myself that you knew my state's capital, Augusta! Though it can't have more than 10 or 15 thousand souls. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:48 am Post subject: |
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| joe_doufu wrote: |
| I was flattering myself that you knew my state's capital, Augusta! Though it can't have more than 10 or 15 thousand souls. |
Where you from? I spent my HS in Falmouth right next to Portland. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:29 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| joe_doufu wrote: |
| I was flattering myself that you knew my state's capital, Augusta! Though it can't have more than 10 or 15 thousand souls. |
Where you from? I spent my HS in Falmouth right next to Portland. |
From the north, born in Millinocket but I call the western mountains home. I consider Rangeley my home town, and my parents still live in Farmington. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:00 am Post subject: |
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| hypnotist wrote: |
| bucheon bum wrote: |
| A good dictator can do wonders. Park Chung-Hee for Korea, Pinochet for Chile, the communists in China since 1979, etc. The problem is they're the exception the rule. The chances of a Pinochet coming to power are pretty slim. And some that might start out well might be too seduced by power and not give it up when the appropriate time arrives (such as Robert Mugabe, who has taken that to the extreme). |
Pinochet was a good dictator?! His human rights abuses were probably a good inspiration for Mugabe! |
Most stable democracy in Latin America? Chile
Most diversified economy in LA? Chile
Most stable economy? Chile
Pinochet deserves some of that credit, although more so for the economic progress than political  . |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:04 am Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
Most stable democracy in Latin America? Chile
Most diversified economy in LA? Chile
Most stable economy? Chile
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I don't have any stats or articles to back this up, but I was under the impression that this was also true in the 60s (i.e. before the coup and Pinochet). And if not 'the most' in each category, certainly 'one of the most'.
Maybe Pinochet could be given credit for not destroying the economy while terrorizing the country... |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:31 am Post subject: |
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well yes, definitly the first one. That's why I thought Pinochet deserves more credit for the economic progress the country made than political. One could easily argue that Chilean political development was stunted or regressed thanks to him.
As far as the economy goes, remember that Allende was President when Pinochet launched his coup d'etat. I doubt Allende would have opened up the economy, and perhaps done the opposite.
The following is an overview of the Chilean economy. Pretty impressive. And no, none of it deals with Pinochet or even dates back to when he was President. Just thought I'd throw it in:
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Accolades from influential organizations across the world have helped Chile win the confidence of foreign investors. In its 2002 World Competitiveness report, the International Institute for Management Development positioned Chile first among Latin American countries and above European countries such as France and Italy and Asian economies such as South Korea and Taiwan. Chile ranked 20th in a group of 49 countries, climbing from 24 in 2001. The Chilean economy consistently earns high marks from the World Economic Forum as well. In the Forum��s 2001-2002 report on current economic competitiveness, the country loomed over its Latin peers.
Chile is also well regarded for its relatively marginal levels of corruption. Global watchdog Transparency International, which rates countries on a Corruption Perceptions Index, gave Chile a 7.5 rating for 2002 out of a possible ten. It tied with Ireland and scored better than a number of European countries such as France, Italy, and Belgium. Similarly, PriceWaterhouseCoopers launched a gauge of capital market transparency in January 2001 – the Opacity Index – with Chile and the U.S. sharing the number two spot after Singapore. |
Economic Overview by APEC 2004 |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:39 am Post subject: |
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An overview of Pincohet's reforms:
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| Pinochet slashed duties on imports, from an average tariff rate of 94 percent in 1973 to 10 percent by 1979. He privatized all but two dozen of Chile's 300 state-owned banks, as well as utilities and entitlements such as social security. By 1979, he had cut public spending almost in half and public investment by nearly 14 percent. He lowered taxes, restricted union activities and returned more than a third of the land seized under Allende's land reform program. |
Then his second round:
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With a third of the workforce unemployed and unrest growing, by 1984 Pinochet began to "reform the reforms," said Ricardo French-Davis, an economics professor at the University of Chile.
He allowed the peso to float and reinstated restrictions on the movement of capital in and out of the country. He introduced banking legislation, and ratcheted up spending on research and development efforts through the Chile Foundation and other collaborations between the public and private sectors. |
Chile's Open Economy
I should note the organization is fairly left-wing, just in case you're thinking it is a biased right-wing source.  |
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