1 I go to Chile frequently, for some reason there is an attempt to paint Bachelet as a left wing type politician. She is to the left of her opponent, and in general Chile is to the left of the U.S. but she is basically a continuation of the previous administration. I really don't think much is going to change. But I guess it also proves that the Chileans aren't as socially conservative as many thought.

2 Do you think the privatized "social security" system is in danger?

3 Not as a result of Bachelet being elected. It's worth pointing out that she's from the same political party that has been in power in Chile for the last couple of decades. The social security system there has a few large problems. I don't know the percentage of self employed people, but an incredible number seem to be and they aren't in it. The contribution level was set at 10% and with current life expectancy that most likely isn't sufficient. My spanish is fairly ragged, but when I was there last month El Mercurio (One of Santiago's Newspapers) was pretty well up in arms over the fees the system administrators had been charging, and that seems to be the most consistent complaint I've seen. It was a fairly common statement from the Presidential candidates, I can't vouch for the validity of it though. As best as I could tell, the solution the paper was putting forth was to allow other companies to bid on managing the funds. I didn't see (comprehend is probably a better word) anything to suggest the system itself was likely to be scrapped.

4 In addition to 10% workers are also supposed to put in several percent for various insurances such as those covered by SS. 4% of the GNP is also spent on transition costs. So the total numbers are quite high. Management fees are out of this world, they make those on our hedge funds (typically 1.5% of priincipal and 20% of annual return) look cheap. And these are for funds that should be safely stored in indexes (eg. Vanguard .3% annual fee) not speculations. So it's almost certain they have a pyrimid which will collapse.