Chicago economists trained under a US aid program shaped Pinochet’s reforms
Evidence
Friedman and his colleague Arnold Harberger traveled to Chile for six days in March 1975, during which they delivered a series of public lectures evaluating its economic and po liti cal policies and on one occasion met personally with its military dictator, Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet had entrusted economic policy to a group of radical economists, many of whom had attended the University of Chicago between 1956 and 1964 under the auspices of a program sponsored by the Agency for International Development. At the time of Friedman’s visit they were in the midst of implementing a rapid series of freemarket reforms, including deregulation, privatization, elimination of price controls, cuts in government spending, and an expansion of free trade. Critics have argued that the implementation of the economic policies that Friedman advocated required the use of the junta’s repressive mea sures, and have strongly implied the existence of sinister motives on the part of Friedman and his colleagues. They have raised enduring questions about the human costs of the “shock treatment” Friedman recommended and the wisdom of providing personal advice to terroristic regimes. But Friedman was also severely critical of the Chilean government’s repressive mea sures before, during, and after his visit, and refused receipt of two honorary degrees in order to avoid an implicit endorsement he did not want to bestow. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 516
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: The ‘shock treatment’ episode and its human costs bear directly on the structural ‘stabilizer’ theme in ‘On Sacrifice’ — the coercion underpinning economic stabilization regimes.
- XREF: The Chicago Boys’ AID-funded training connects to the broader Mont Pèlerin project of technical expertise as a transmission channel for free-market ideas. — connects to: Chicago-trained economists filled key Chilean ministries under Pinochet — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1624; Chicago-school economists delivered a shock-treatment blueprint to Pinochet’s coup regime within days — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 322; A Frei-era planning agency seeded Pinochet’s economic reform team — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1627 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Chicago-trained economists filled key Chilean ministries under Pinochet
#expands(0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1624 - Chicago-school economists delivered a shock-treatment blueprint to Pinochet’s coup regime within days
#expands(0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 322 - The Chicago–Chile economics project produced over a dozen top government economic officials
#expands(0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 316 - The CIA-backed coup installed Chicago-school austerity economists in Chile
#expands(0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 356 - A Frei-era planning agency seeded Pinochet’s economic reform team
#expands(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1627 - Chicago’s 1956 Chile program trained thirty economists and reshaped nationwide economics teaching
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1550 - Chicago-trained economists were placed throughout the Chilean state before the 1973 coup.
#expands(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1552 - Chile’s Chicago Boys network predated Pinochet grounded in pre-coup institutions.
#qualifies(0.75) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 544