Sebastian Pinera, Conservative Billionaire, Favored In Chile Presidential Run-Off

SANTIAGO (Reuters) -- Conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera led Chile's presidential vote and is seen the favorite to win a run-off and lead a political shift in Latin America's most stable economy after 20 years of leftist rule.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[Artemis34]

01:32 AM on 12/29/2009

"Chile...has the highest standard of living in Latin America"

That'll change quickly if they let conservatives seize power.

[MSaxe]

12:06 AM on 12/15/2009

I didn't know Texans could vote in the Argentine elections!

[ContraryThinker]

04:14 PM on 12/14/2009

Why does the article claim that Chile current;y has a "Leftist" leader?

Are you referring to Michelle Bachelet? Because she is not a leftist

I'm also a bit unclear why you would say Chile has the most stable economy. Take a look at the graph for GDP growth (an indicator that conservatives rely on) it doesn't look very stable to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Chile

[JNarragansett]

05:21 PM on 12/14/2009

Chile is ranked number 3 in the world in terms of free trade (Really they are the number 1 country as 1 and 2 are Hong Kong and Singapore) This has attracted a great deal of foreign investment.

The 1980 constitution is still in effect (while amended). In a region that has seen a great deal of the effects of the rule of man it is much more encouraging to invest in a country that is actually ruled by law.

Chile is estimated to become the first developed Latin American country in 2018. From 1984-1998 they saw 7% annual growth and reduced poverty from 45% to 15%.

They have a wonderfully functional private pension system (started in 1981) and today, more than 95 percent of Chilean workers have joined the system; the pension funds have accumulated $36 billion in assets; and the average real rate of return has been 10.9 percent per year. (more info: http://www.safp.cl) The monthly payouts on these plans are roughly half those of Social Security in the US, but the average wage is 5x higher in the US. This has pulled a lot of the politics out of the economy and removed the ticking time bomb of the bankrupt pay as you go system that required tax rates on future workers.

I don't expect to be popular here for saying that Chile is successful because of their free market approach, but it's hard to argue with their success in the region.

[Artemis34]

01:33 AM on 12/29/2009

In the states, everyone who does not kiss capitalist bvtt and who does care for their people at all is a "leftist."