The Chicago–Chile economics project produced over a dozen top government economic officials

Evidence

Harberger oversaw a US government–sponsored partnership between the Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chicago, which, he reflected, spawned more than a dozen key ministers, Central Bank presidents and budget directors. The Chile Project stretched back to the era of import-substitution industrialization of the 1950s – a time, he reflected, when the watchwords across Latin America were ‘interventionism, paternalism, nationalism, and socialism’. The Chicago Boys’ opposition to the politicisation of the economy preceded Allende’s victory by decades; but his socialist government’s economic planning, Keynesian demand-stimulation and wealth redistribution provided their ideal adversary, and brought them to the attention of Chile’s business elites. From the Chicago-inspired perspective of these técnicos, Allende’s proposals amounted to an ignorant violation of the laws of the economy and the destruction of a free society. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 316

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s austerity literature — this is a concrete mechanism by which US-trained economists seeded Latin American austerity regimes. — connects to: Chicago economists trained under a US aid program shaped Pinochet’s reforms — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 516; Chicago-trained economists filled key Chilean ministries under Pinochet — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1624; Chicago-trained economists were placed throughout the Chilean state before the 1973 coup. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1552 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Chicago-trained economists filled key Chilean ministries under Pinochet #corroborates (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1624
• Chicago-trained economists were placed throughout the Chilean state before the 1973 coup. #corroborates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1552