With new industries abuilding and others blueprinted, Chile was like a specialty shop expanding to department-store size. Then the price of copper, Chile's specialty, started to slip. Last week, when it hit 16¢ a Ib. (down from 23½¢ a lb. since March 29), Chileans began wondering just how long they would be in business.
Anaconda, largest of the two U.S. companies that together own 96% of Chile's mines, announced a 30% cutback, laid off 2,615 workers. Higher-cost Chilean-owned mines had already shut down or soon would. That would add several thousand more to the unemployment rolls. Meanwhile, in the U.S.,...
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