Over four decades, Steve Hanke has pursued a worldwide quest to tame the hyperinflation that so frequently ravages developing nations. His solution: tying their currencies to the U.S. dollar so their governments are no longer free to unleash an avalanche of pesos or sucre to fund their giant overspending, at the expense of their citizens, who pay for the blowout in rocketing bills for rent, medicine and groceries that way outpace their incomes.
The success that the professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University has had in advising governments across three continents — whether achieving straight “dollarization” or establishing Hong Kong-like currency boards that fix their monies to the greenback — has won him the title, you might even say the “brand,” of globetrotting “Money Doctor.”
Now, the doctor’s making the most important house call of his career. Venezuela’s National Assembly has just named him Special Adviser on Economic, Monetary, and Energy Affairs, tasking him with curing hyperinflation now running at a 400% annual clip — the worst in the world — as the country tries to rebuild after the ouster of Nicolas Maduro. Hanke’s fix: a full dollarization law that would abolish the bolivar and the central bank outright. He told Fortune he puts the odds of passage at 50% to 80% — the best shot that sound money has had in Venezuela since the country rejected the money doctor’s last surgery attempt, three decades ago.
