Sophie Caldwell

Chile has long been synonymous with large-scale mining, especially copper. That dominance is changing the calculus of national development: extraction remains central, but the real economic and social leverage increasingly lies in capturing value further down the chain. Expanding activity beyond the mine— into processing, manufacturing, services, technology, and recycling — can multiply jobs, diversify exports, reduce vulnerability to commodity cycles, and accelerate decarbonization. The following lays out how and why these opportunities arise, with examples, data-driven context, and practical implications.Foundations: Chile’s mining landscape and its broader economic relevanceChile is one of the world’s largest producers of copper and a…

Argentina is a canonical case study for how investors translate political risk and capital controls into higher required returns, asymmetric pricing, and complicated hedging decisions. Chronic macro volatility, repeated sovereign restructurings, episodes of stringent foreign exchange restrictions, and abrupt policy shifts mean that market prices embed more than standard macro risk premiums. This article explains the channels through which political actions and capital controls affect asset pricing, the empirical indicators investors watch, practical valuation and risk-assessment methods, and concrete examples from recent Argentine history.Why political risk and capital controls matter to returnsPolitical risk and capital controls alter the payoffs that…