Miguel Kast Rist was a German born Chilean economist of the Chicago Boys

Chicago Boys

The Chicago Boys were a group of young Chilean economists most of whom trained at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger, or at its affiliate in the economics department at the Catholic University of Chile...

 group. He was most known for his role in public policies, where he promoted a greater focus of resources toward the needy.

Upon getting his Master in Economics at University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, Miguel Kast joins Odeplan (1973), the state agency that lead many public policy and economic changes after 1973. At Odeplan Miguel Kast focused most of his energies in creating the "map of extreme poverty", which would become the cornerstone of Chile's social development programs. In 1978 he becomes the head of Odeplan and uses his position to involve young professionals in the struggle against poverty by making them join Odeplan and by sending them to the country's outside regions to get insight into the real problems of Chile.

In 1980 Miguel Kast became Labour Minister under the Military government

Military government

Military government can refer to conditions under either Military occupation, or Military dictatorship.-Military Government:Military government is the form of administration by which an occupying power exercises governmental authority over occupied territory.The Hague Conventions of 1907 specify...

 of Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...

 and in 1982 he became Governor of the Central Bank of Chile

Central Bank of Chile

The Central Bank of Chile is the central bank of Chile. It was originally created in 1925 and is incorporated into the current Chilean Constitution as an autonomous institution of constitutional rank.-History:...

.

This was a complicated moment in Chile's economy; the exchange rate was fixed at 39 pesos per dollar and Chile's big economic groups had liabilities with their own banks. As a Central Banker he worked to reduce the level of related loans (loans made to the owners of the banks). He also created a mechanism called the "Portfolio Sale" through which the Central Bank could buy high risk credits to commercial banks. By keeping a fixed exchange rate of 39 pesos per dollar, Miguel Kast hopped to protect local companies that had liabilities in dollar. However the central authority saw it otherwise and on June 13, 1982 decided to devalue the peso. This brought a sharp loss of international reserves and Miguel Kast decided in August 1982 to completely free exchange rate fluctuations thus further devaluing the pesos and bringing a new intervention from the central authority. Under this new threat of instability, Miguel Kast resigns from the Central Bank.

Only few months after his resignation, in January 1983, Miguel Kast learned he had cancer. He died on September 18 of the same year.

In recognition to Miguel Kast work, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation created an award named after him to recognize the Latin American think tank which has made the most important contribution to help reduce poverty.

Sources

Official webpage of Fundacion Miguel Kast
Miguel Kast: Pasíon de Vivir, by Joaquín Lavín, Santiago, Chile, ISBN: 956-7252-05-X