Background
Horacio Lafer was born in 1893 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Horacio Lafer was born in 1893 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
He studied economics, philosophy, and law before going on to a career in industry and politics.
Lafer worked with the Jewish-owned Klabin firm, which developed the cellulose and paper industry in Brazil. According to Lafer’s account. President Gctulio Vargas accomplished the feat of getting industry off the ground in his agrarian and unindustrialized country by giving Wolff Klabin. who was reluctant to become involved, eight days in which to present a plan for paper production.
In 1928 Lafer became the Brazilian delegate to the League of Nations, and in 1934 was elected to the federal chamber of deputies, where he served for almost thirty years. He was appointed minister of finance in 1951 in President Vargas’s government.
When a drought hit northeastern Brazil in 1951, Lafer engineered a plan to solve the problem of agricultural credit shortages, thus also initiating overall economic reform in the region. Upon visiting the northeast he stated that the Brazilian preoccupation with engineering and hydraulic works had overshadowed the economic aspect of the problem, and he suggested the establishment of a credit institution for the northeast. He drafted a law to create the Bank of the Northeast, which was to put major emphasis on the financing of agriculture. Although his efforts had been intended primarily to combat the shortage of agricultural credit, the bank’s powers were eventually broadened to make it an important organ of overall regional development in the northeast.
As minister of finance, Lafer was also responsible for Brazil’s new development policy. Under his five-year plan, known as the Lafer plan, a billion dollars were to be invested in basic industries, transportation, and power. Lafer encountered problems in the administration of his economic policies; whereas he favored stabilization of the economy, he was thwarted by the manager of the Bank of Brazil, who favored the allocation of easy credit. From 1959 to 1961 Lafer was the foreign minister in President Juscelino Kubitschek’s government.
Throughout his career he was active on behalf of the Jewish community of Brazil, helping to ease the government’s attitude toward Jewish immigration and toward the State of Israel, and campaigning against Nazi propaganda.
Member Brazilian delegation, Pan American Conference, Rio de Janeiro. Member of tech, board of economy and finance. Member: Academy, de Estudos Económicos de Sao Paulo.