The occasional success of neoliberal policies such as free trade and balanced budgets in East Asia have long served, correctly or incorrectly, as a model of success for industrializing economies. The failure to adopt these policies in Latin America early enough is seen as the cause of its inability to match the East Asian success. The author says this assumption is dead wrong. Damage done by the eventual adoption of neoliberal polices in Latin America show that the nations were not at a stage where such policies could possibly work.