Fact check
Is it true: Chicago Boys + Pinochet economic reforms (1973-1990)?
Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.
The Chicago Boys' influence on Pinochet's economic programme is fully documented: the UChicago-Catholic University of Chile exchange was US-funded; El Ladrillo's privatisation and liberalisation programme was implemented directly by Chicago-trained economists. Friedman's 1975 visit and letter to Pinochet are documented. The claim that the reforms required authoritarian repression to implement (Klein's Shock Doctrine thesis) is disputed by economists who have studied the period in detail.
The claim
Beginning in the mid-1950s, an exchange programme between the University of Chicago economics department and the Catholic University of Chile sent Chilean students to study under Milton Friedman and A
Key evidence
US-funded exchange programme between UChicago and Catholic University of Chile is documented
Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine causation thesis is contested by economists
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