Left Behind

"This is a book by an economist who is making a similar point to Michael Reid but he probably explains it better in terms of what the economic policies are that the populists are promoting and adopting and how they hinder long-term development in Latin America. Sebastian Edwards is a Chilean who has made interesting contributions to defining populism. The debate in recent years regarding Chile is all about how to move the country beyond cyclical copper prices that give the country good years when the price is good and then move it to bad years as the price goes down. Edwards in his book highlights the need for countries to be counter-cyclical in their economic policies so that they can save up money in the good years. Yes, but it has only been doing this since 2003 when the policy was implemented. And Edwards says it is something other countries should be doing as well."