|
| |
Morning
 
|
|
Practicum Meetings
On the way to PUC
this morning, I noticed something I hadn’t before. In the metro
stations, they have vending machines with books and CDs. What an
interesting concept. As much as it sometimes seems the rest of the
world simply adopts things from the US, there are amazing innovations
around the world that could potentially be copied in the US. (Kristen) |
|
Afternoon
|
Central Bank Visit
|
|
In the afternoon,
we went to the Central Bank of Chile where Prof. Jorge Desmormeaux gave
us a presentation. Prof. Jorge is a economics professor at PUC and also
serves on the board of Central Bank. He talked about how monetary
policies were used to reform the Chilean economy and showed some
economic comparison data of Chile with rest of Latin America. Not
surprising, Chile has the highest per capita GDP but the key learning
was that it also has a lower income disparity. (Sonal). |
Prof. Jorge Desormeaux at the Central Bank
|
The first activity of the day was to go
to the Chilean Central Bank One of the central bankers; Jorge Desormeaux
spoke to our group in the room where the central bank decisions are made.
It was awesome. Not only did Mr. Desormeaux give a very detailed informed
presentation, he was very receptive to questions posed by both US and
Chilean students. (Chad).
One of the principles discussed by Mr.
Desormeaux that convinced me that Chile was an advanced country was his
commitment to being part of a world market. He stressed that there is “no
substitute for a world market.” This attitude is not prevalent in Latin
America, which is know for import substitution policies and high tariffs to
protect local industries. Chile is an export economy and lacking in a large
internal market for its goods. By nature, it must look to the world
market. However, it seems like top leadership really understands this
concept and is committed to making it work even though it understands there
are short term costs associated with the strategy. (Chad)
|
|
144.gif)
