Hernán Büchi
Hernán Alberto Büchi Buc (born March 6, 1949 in Iquique ) is a Chilean economist and politician. In the final years of the military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet , he was Chilean finance minister from 1985 to 1989. In the first free presidential election in 1989, he was defeated as a right-wing candidate. Today he works as a business advisor and board member of several leading Chilean companies.
education
Büchi, whose ancestors came from Switzerland on his father's side , graduated from the Universidad de Chile with a degree in mining engineering and an MBA from Columbia University in 1975 , which distinguishes him from the Chicago Boys , the monetarist economic experts of Chile who, after a Education at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile typically studied at the University of Chicago . Despite the different training, Büchi also pursued a market-liberal economic policy.
Civil service career during the military dictatorship
In 1975, Hernán Büchi began his career in the Chilean public service as an advisor to the Minister of Economics, Pablo Baraona, and as a member of the supervisory board of the state-owned sugar manufacturer Industria Azucarera Nacional and the state telephone company Compañía de Teléfonos (since 1978).
In 1979 he was appointed advisor in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In this role he worked with the Minister of Labor and Social Security, José Piñera , the initiator of private old-age insurance in Chile. In 1981 he was appointed Undersecretary of State for Health Care and prepared there for the privatization of health insurance. During the 1983/84 recession in Chile, he took on additional responsibilities as Minister for Public Planning (ODEPLAN) and as Head of Banking Supervision.
On February 12, 1985, he replaced Luis Escobar Cerda as Chilean finance minister. His appointment marked a turn in fiscal policy with a return to the principles of monetarism after his predecessor advocated a more Keynesian fiscal policy.
Büchi's goal was primarily to generate growth. To do this, he took various measures:
- a significant reduction in government spending through cuts in the social sector, layoffs of public sector employees and cuts in pensions.
- Tax cuts
- the depreciation of the Chilean peso against the US dollar. This promoted the export economy and made imports more expensive.
- a radical privatization of state-owned utilities and telecommunications sectors
- a control of interest rates by the central bank
- a controlled lowering of tariffs
Presidential candidacy
After Pinochet suffered a surprise defeat in the 1988 referendum (see main article: History of Chile ), the first free presidential elections since the beginning of the military dictatorship in 1973 were scheduled.
On July 12, 1989, the Unión Demócrata Independiente named Hernán Büchi as a candidate. Other parties in the center-right Renovación Nacional , as well as the Democracia Radical party, supported him. The motto of the election campaign was: Büchi es el hombre (German: Büchi is the (right) man. )
In May 1989, Büchi had recognized "vital contradictions" and had resigned from his candidacy. The Renovación then resorted to its original candidate Sergio Onofre Jarpa, interior minister under Pinochet, but who had renounced the candidacy in favor of Büchi. In July, Büchi changed his mind again. He said he had overcome his doubts and resumed the candidacy. In the elections, Büchi achieved 29.4%, while the victorious candidate of the center-left Concertación , Patricio Aylwin , was elected president with 55.2% of the vote. The third candidate, Francisco Javier Errázuriz , received 15.4%.
today
After his electoral defeat, Büchi withdrew into private life and no longer actively intervened in political events. From 1990 he advised governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia on economic issues. In 1990 he founded the Instituto Libertad y Desarrollo , a think tank whose aim is to promote neoliberal economic policy. Since 1994 he has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of the food manufacturer Lucchetti, which is owned by Grup Luksic. He holds other mandates in the Luksic Group. He is also a member of the board of directors of Chilean mining companies.
It is believed that Büchi is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karin Fischer: The Influence of Neoliberals in Chile before, during, and after Pinochet. In: Mirowski, P. / Plehwe, D. (Ed.): The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective , Cambridge / London: Harvard University Press, 2009, pp. 305–346.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Büchi, Hernán |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Büchi Buc, Hernán Alberto (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chilean economist and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 6, 1949 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Iquique |