Was the Washington Consensus Right After All?

The so-called Washington Consensus has come in for a lot of bashing since economist John Williamson first coined the term in 1987 to describe a package of market-oriented economic reforms designed to promote development. On Friday Arnold "Al" Harberger, the University of Chicago economist known as the father of Latin America's Chicago Boys, defended the much-maligned policy package at a CGD event that drew more than a hundred economists and others, despite Washington's August doldrums. CGD vice president Dennis de Tray, a student of Harberger's in the 1970s, provides a personal perspective on the eminent economist's provocative talk.