Roberto Campos

Roberto de Oliveira Campos was born in Cuiabá and studied theology and philosophy in Catholic seminaries before joining the diplomatic service. He took part in the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, helped design the national development bank BNDE in the early 1950s and presided over it under Kubitschek. As planning minister of Castelo Branco's military government from 1964 to 1967 he co-authored the Government Economic Action Program (PAEG). He later served as ambassador in London, then as senator for Mato Grosso and federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro. His memoir A Lanterna na Popa appeared in 1994, and he joined the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1999.

Roberto Campos is regarded as one of the most influential Brazilian economists of the 20th century and a reference point for Brazilian liberals, who praise his early warnings about inflation, state monopolies and protectionism and see the privatizations of the 1990s as vindicating him. His institutional reforms, such as the Central Bank and the housing finance system, outlasted the regime that created them. Critics on the left and among developmentalists argue that his 1964-1967 program cut real wages and that ending job stability weakened workers. Others criticize his role in a military government that suspended political rights, and to his role in shaping the regime's 1967 Constitution. His Sunday newspaper columns and his memoir made him a widely read polemicist, known for sharp irony against economic nationalism.