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Latin America under Fire! What is to Be Done?

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The past few months have witnessed violent demonstrations in several Latin American countries,  including Chile, the only country from the region (other than Mexico) to have joined the OECD,  the rich-country club. Moises Naim and Brian Winter recently published a thoughtful article in  Foreign Affairs , titled “ Why Latin America Was Primed to Explode ”   (October 29), in which they  make a strong case that following the commodity boom of the early part of the previous decade  the recent past has seen a sharp deceleration of economic growth. “Against the backdrop of  stagnating wages and rising costs of living, indignities such as inequality and corruption have  become more difficult for many people to swallow,” they persuasively argue. I put forward here  some reflections on the economic growth debate and what this means for Latin America. What about economic growth? Economists—I am one of them—have long studied and argued about the sources and  consequences o