December
5, 2007. JP
receives the "Award
for Best Contribution to Free Market Thinking"
from the Stockholm
Newtwork. This is his acceptance speeck:
"I
am honored to receive this Award from the Stockholm Network,
an institution dedicated to the proposition that
freedom works and that together we can create a better
world. We see in Europe today the dramatic failure of
a social engineering model that originated with
Chancellor Von Bismarck in 19th century
Prussia, and whose fundamental flaw is the destruction
of the link between contributions and benefits, or, in
other words, between effort and reward. That idea of
humanity, which conceives of individuals as passive
recipients of benefits defined and handed by the
State, rather than as active agents in their own
lives, is wrong. After all, life itself is not a
defined benefit. But that idea is also
dangerous because, in the service of this illusion,
some would surrender their liberty and some would
seize power. When a society destroys the link
between rights and responsibilities, in the end it
destroys both liberty and security. Now we know that
there is an alternative, a new social paradigm
grounded on personal responsibility and individual
freedom, and we know that it works. In the next years,
I hope to work together with the Stockholm Network and
its associated think tanks, to spread this message in
Europe and to avoid the explosion of the pension time
bomb. From Chile, my beautiful, long and narrow
country, I salute you all this night with the words of
Tennyson: Come, my friends/It is not too late to
seek a newer world./To sail beyond the sunset and the
baths/ Of all the western stars, until I die./We are
not now that strength which in the old days/Moved
earth and heaven; that which we are, we are/One equal
temper of heroic hearts/Made weak by time and fate,
but strong in will/To strive, to seek, to find, and
not to yield."
September
17, 2007. JP
is invited to present his ideas to President Sarkozy's
"Commission
pour la Libération de la Croissance Francaise".
September 13, 2007. Pension
reform conference in Bucharest to launch PRAs in
Romania. "Several million Romanians will
become investors, and the private pension system will
educate them in the spirit of a free market economy"
says Romanian
President Traian Basescu.
June
25, 2007. JP
gives conferences in Cape Town, Durban and
Johannesburg, South Africa.
January
29, 2007. Today
a tribute is paid to Milton Friedman in a conference organized by the Manhattan Institute and the Wall
Street Journal at the University Club in New York. In
a panel with William Niskanen (Chairman of the Cato
Institute) and Paul Gigot (responsible for the
editorial page of the WSJ), JP explains Friedman's international impact, focusing
especially in his influence in Chile and China.
October 2, 2006. The
Liberalni Institute, the free market think tank in the
Czech Republic, gives today in Prague his Annual Award
to JP. Former Award recipients include Nobel laureates Milton
Friedman, Gary Becker and James Buchanan, and
reformers such as Roger Douglas of New Zealand and
Antonio Martino of Italy. Jiri
Schwartz and David Lipka of the Institute justify
the award for the "contribution to the
proliferation of liberal thinking, and making ideas of
liberty, private property, competition and the rule of
law, come true".
September
20, 2006. Professor
Salvador Valdes in a study
published in "Estudios
Publicos" writes that in Chile "the
transition cost from the paygo to the capitalization
system will be close to 1,05% of GNP in 2008, that is
78% lower than the one indicated by the government."
May 21, 2006. Montenegro became today the
first new country of the XXI century. In Podgorica, JP
give a lecture at the University, meet the Prime
Minister, and witness the independence
referendum.
May 16, 2006. At
a Pension Reform seminar in Bratislava, Slovakia's
Minister of Labor informs that up to now 1.2 million
Slovak workers (out of 2 million elegible ones) have
freely decided to contribute 9% of their monthly wage,
from now on, to a private retirement account. JP meets
Minister of Finance Ivan Miklos and declares that this is a great victory in the "pension
referendum". The deadline for change is June 30,
2006, and it is expected that 1.5 million workers
will move to PRAs (75% of the eligible work force).
April 1, 2006.
The Cato Institute
website has this one hour
TV program produced by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson
Foundation of Sweden: "The
Man Who Fought for Prosperity and Democracy in Chile, José
Piñera interviewed by Thomas Gur".
September
5, 2005.
"The free market economies- the US, Chile, Taiwan, Britain- are the model of the
future. I meant it when I quipped in my July 8th newsletter that I consider Jose Pinera to be
"the most dangerous man
alive'" (Benjamin C. Works, Executive Director, The Strategic Issues Research Institute,
www.siri-us). August 19, 2005.
Excerpts from a letter
to JP from Ludovit Kanik, Minister of Labor of Slovakia:
"May I greet you from the bottom of my heart. It’s almost a year since you were visiting with us last. Your presentation before Slovak public has significantly contributed to a successful launching of the new pension system, which means that our citizens now get 9% of their wages every month in their personal accounts, which are in their possession. The system has been fully operational for 8 months now. Only recently we have registered the millionth participant and we expect that upon completion of the transition period in mid-2006, almost 70% of all population of active age will have joined the system. That is good evidence of increasing confidence of the public and a great potential of the capitalisation pillar. You had your great share in these positive results, namely by your frequent visits to Slovakia. Your authority, experience and knowledge were the best ambassador for the pension saving. Allow me to emphasise how much I appreciate our mutual cooperation, your attitude to our country, and the assistance you've rendered us in the decisive
moments."
July 29, 2005.
A delegation from Nigeria meets JP in Santiago to discuss their plans to implement
PRAs in their country.
July 4, 2005.
A brief note by JP on
Independence
Day: "Ben
Franklin vs Otto von Bismarck."
July 1, 2005. Nicole
Gelinas writes:
"It’s
foolish not to take advantage of advances in
information and financial technology to ease our
collective Social Security burden without forcing
undue risk onto individual workers and retirees. One of the unheralded benefits of the
beautifully engineered personal accounts within
Chile’s version of Social Security is that the
lowest-income workers have the same access to good
mutual funds within the very successful program as do
the highest-income workers"
(City
Journal, Summer
2005).
May 7, 2005.
John Tierney strikes again with a second Op Ed in the NYT about Chile, titled "Place your bets". His conclusion:
"I can't protect my pension against political risk, but (my Chilean friend) Pablo can help protect his against the risks of the stock market. As he approaches retirement, he can gradually shift his money out of stocks and into bonds, like the ones that financed the private road between Santiago and the port city of Valparaiso, which will be paid off by tolls. The Chilean pension system has billboards along the road proclaiming, 'Your savings are financing this highway, and this highway is financing your retirement.' Those billboards have been on my mind. My pension depends on 535 politicians who will be asked to vote for steep tax increases or budget cuts that they fear could cost them their jobs. Pablo's pension depends on people driving between Chile's two largest
cities."
April
25, 2005. John
Tierney writes an Op Ed in The New York Times on
Chile's pension system after he discovers that his
school time friend in Chile, Pablo Serra, will get
three times more than him in Social Security benefits.
Its title: "The Proof is in the
Pension."
March
3, 2005. A
profile of JP that emphasizes the worldwide attraction of
the Chilean pension model is published in the WSJ and
in the WSJE under the title "Pension
Reform Pied Piper loves private accounts."
March 1, 2005. Even
the far left in the
U.S. is intrigued
by personal accounts. The article "The
Siren of Santiago" in
Mother Jones, though filled with distortions about Chile's
recent history and its
pension system, is interesting due to its provenance.
February
2, 2005. In his
State of the Union address, President George W. Bush announces
his proposal to reform Social Security and to
introduce personal retirement accounts.
February 1, 2005.
Former Senator (D) Bob Kerrey,
an early supporter of PRAs, writes in an Op Ed in
the WSJ: "The
late Pat Moynihan used to joke when I asked him why
liberals were so reluctant to consider changing Social
Security so that it guaranteed wealth as well as
income: 'It's because they worry that wealth will turn
Democrats into Republicans.'"
December
1, 2004. The New
York Times publishes JP's article "Retiring
in Chile"
in their Op-Ed page.
It reaches the number one position in their list of
the 25 most emailed
articles from their website.
October
27, 2004. Carlo Stagnaro
of IBL writes an
article in "Tech
Central Station."
October
21, 2004. The Bruno Leoni
Institute (IBL) organizes a panel in
Rome to launch JP's latest book advocating what
a reviewer called a
"rivoluzioni copernicana" in European pensions.
It takes place in the
Chamber of Deputies in piazza Montecitorio. In the
panel, senators from all political
parties discuss the Chilean model and its relevance to
Italy. The book is titled "Pensioni, Una reforma per
sopravvivere. Prospettive europee del modello a
capitalizzazione" and can be obtained through the
IBL website (www.brunoleoni.it).
September
2, 2004. In his closing speech at the Republican Convention in New
York, President Bush once again reaffirmes his commitment to create
personal Social Security accounts.
June
17, 2004. The Stockholm
Network informs that: "The Istituto Bruno Leoni hosted a conference on pension
reform. José Piñera, the architect of Chile's market-oriented pension
reforms, debated with former Minister of Labour Tiziano Treu
(Centre-Left) and former Budget Minister Giancarlo Pagliarini
(Centre-Right)... Could this be a turning point in the Italian debate on pension
reforms?"
May 31, 2004. Here is
JP's comment on the "State of the Nation" speech of
President Putin, published in The Moscow Times.
May
28, 2004. Business Week
celebrates the role of a funded
retirement system in creating robust capital
markets: "Drivers in Chile don't have to wait until they're 65 to enjoy their pension
benefits. Every day thousands do so
when they speed from Santiago to Viña del Mar along the Rutas del Pacífico toll
road, which opened
on Apr. 13 with funding from the country's deep-pocketed pension
funds. A billboard reminds passing motorists: 'Your savings are financing this
highway, and this highway is financing your retirement'."
May 13, 2004.
The
Economist's "At last a vision at home"
states that the
"ownership society" should be the grand theme of this year's presidential campaign in the USA,
and its keystone is the idea of Social Security private retirement
accounts.
April 9, 2004.
The Cato Institute
hosts a
conference in Moscow and another in St. Petersburg. JP promotes a program of
radical
free market reforms in Russia. A group of
reformers is invited to a four-hour brainstorming with President Putin in his dacha, as related
in this article by the Moscow Times entitled "World Reformers pay Putin a visit."
December 19,
2003. Ludovit Kanik writes to JP: "I would like to share some
good news with you. On Tuesday, the 16th December 2003, the Slovak Parliament approved the law on the
old-age pension savings scheme. Thus, as of 1 January 2005, Slovak workers will start depositing 9%
into their personal savings accounts. These savings will be their private
property, to which
succession rights will fully apply. I am confident that the pension
reform, borne by your inspiration
and with your significant assistance, will bring not only higher pension to our citizens but also
freedom and self-assurance while seeking out the correct
way. Your visit to Slovakia started an
intense discussion about the pension reform and enormously influenced the generation of a favourable
political climate. The time of our
visit to Chile coincided with the period of acute search for parliamentary support of the main law of
the reform. The discussion with you made great
impression, and contributed to a major extent to the
determination and will of the members of our parliament to push through this historically new project
of the pension system in our society. I am thankful as well as obliged to you for your efforts that
resulted in very good news not only for our citizens but to people all over the world as
well. Respectfully, Ludovít Kaník, Minister of Labor and Social
Affairs."
November, 2003. Slovakia Minister of Labor Ludovit Kanik and the full Labor and Social Affairs Committee of
Parliament, which is visiting Santiago in order to learn about the Chilean
reform, meet with JP. A good exchange of
views until JP learns that in their pension reform project
workers will not have property rights over
their retirement savings. The Minister says that the State will own the accounts in order
to keep the budget deficit within the Maastricht
criteria, since Slovakia wants to join the eurozone
some day. JP explains that it is an essential feature of the Chilean system that every worker owns
his/her retirement account and that he will not support a reform in which the government owns
the accounts, because there is a clear possibility that some government will in the future confiscate
all or part of the workers hard-earned money. It will be another big frustration for the
Slovak
people. JP explains to them how the eurozone authorities will have
to adjust those criteria to take into consideration unfunded pension liabilities and the situation of
reforming countries. The chairman and all the members of the commission agree with
Pinera's position. A few days later Jan Oravec, one of the early promoters of Slovakian
pension reform, writes to JP: "After coming back to Slovakia from Chile, the Slovak Members of Parliaments who met
with you decided to change the law submitted by Kanik and establish the property rights
again. Finance
Minister Miklos agreed immediately. Slovak workers will own their pension saving accounts only thanks
to our campaign here in Slovakia and thanks to you meeting them in Chile and explaining them this issue
too."
September,
2003.
Example of a busy month
of JP in USA. Conference
at the California Club in a historic mansion of downtown Los
Angeles; chat online in WashingtonPost.com; meeting of the Advisory Board
of Cato's SS
Project to agree on a specific reform proposal;
brainstorming with the staff of Citizens for a Sound Economy;
dinner at Matt Kibbe's home with Barry Jackson, who works with Karl Rove in the White
House;
conference sponsored by For Our Grandchildren in
Charleston, SC, introduced by Governor
Mark Sanford; conference
at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics
of St. Anselm College in Manchester, introduced by Senator John
Sununu; three days in the annual
meeting of the Cato Club 200 at Charleston, with a visit to the wonderful gardens of Middleton Place;
and meetings at the Cato Institute with visitors from
Italy, Mexico, and Slovakia.
June, 2003.
Example
of a busy month of JP in Europe. In
Paris, Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin
explaines his
timid, and only parametric, pension reform, but with French eloquence
speaks of the need to act with "lucidite demographique".
Meanwhile, all sorts of strikes, including the (mal) odorous one of garbage
collection. A conference in Milan on the crisis of the Welfare
State. A fellow panelist, Sabine Herold of "Liberte, j'ecris ton nom",
explaines how they mobilized
80.000 persons to protest in the streets of Paris against those
strikes. The name of that organization
originates from the marvelous poem of Paul Eluard. In
Milan, interview with Cecile
Phillipe for the launch of her Francophone think-tank, the Institut Molinari.
Full support and encouragement
to three young Italians,
Alberto Mingardi, Carlo Stagnaro and Leonardo Facco, in their effort to create an
Italian market liberal think-tank named Istituto Bruno Leoni.
September 22,
2002. Today
in the Toronto Star, columnist James Daw argues that former president
Bill Clinton was set to push hard for Social Security reform before the infamous Lewinsky affair hit
the national scene: "Liberal Democrats were opposed to his pension changes, so to get their
support to avoid impeachment, Clinton postponed the package of
reforms."
May
9, 2002. Jose
Pinera is invited to attend the ceremony at the White
House in which President George W. Bush honors Milton
Friedman on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Extraordinary
presentations by Gary Becker, Alan Greenspan and
Donald Rumsfeld.
February 16, 2002.
In its "Survey on
Pensions", The Economist says: "Twenty years
ago the Chilean government took a bold step to
extricate itself from its pay-as-you-go pension
system. It switched to a funded system in which
pension benefits are paid from savings and the returns
on them. The Chilean reform has since provided a model
for reforms elsewhere in Latin America. The gross rate
of return earned by Chile's pension funds from their
inception to the end of 2000 averaged 11% a year after
inflation."
February 7, 2002.
Jose Pinera debates with former United
States Senator Paul Simon at The City University of
New York, sponsored by the Donald & Paula Smith
Family Foundation.
September,
2000. Foreign
Affairs asks Jose Pinera for an article after
an April visit to
Moscow, invited by Andrei Illarionov to meet the key
members of President-elect Putin team. The deputy editor,
Fareed Zakharia, titles it: "A
Chilean model for Russia".
One paragraph: "As a member of the team of economists
that entered the Pinochet government in Chile in the
1970s to produce a free-market economic revolution and
a return to democratic rule, I was inevitably asked
whether Russia 'needed a Pinochet' and whether the
country should introduce a 'Chilean economic model.'
My unequivocal answer was no to the first question and
yes to the second."
December 22,
1998. The
Founder and President of the Cato Institute, Ed Crane, sends
Jose Pinera a gracious
Christmas letter.
December 4,
1998. "We are dealing
with a movement that is as powerful, and in its own
way legitimate, as the labor movement was 100 years
ago", said Senator Patrick Moynihan,
D-N.Y., recently about Social Security privatization (Steve
Moore, "Social Security Reform must empower
workers", Investor's Business Daily).
April 2, 1998. With
the title "No rest for Jose", today's Washington Times
publishes this note: "José Piñera certainly is making
the official rounds in Washington. Who is José, you ask?
Well, apart from the fact that he could mean
the difference between a pleasant and not-so-pleasant retirement for many
Americans, Mr. Piñera was
minister of labor and social security in Chile during the late 1970s. More
importantly, he devised the
plan to privatize Chile's social security system. The Chilean model has since been adopted by seven
other Latin America countries, and is under consideration in countless other places around the
world. Poland, for example, launches its privatized system on May 1 of this
year. Here in Washington, when
the Cato Institute launched its project on Social Security Privatization in 1995 (long before anybody
else in this city took the notion seriously), Mr. Piñera signed on as
co-chairman. Over the past year, he's testified before numerous congressional
committees-Banking, Budget and Ways and Means, to
name a few. He's getting even more attention this week. On
Tuesday, he met with Clinton economic
adviser Gene Sperling, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Social Security Commissioner Ken
Apfel, spending an hour-and-a-half going over the private option in great
detail, says one source in attendance. That night, he was featured guest at a private dinner hosted by Sen. Phil
Gramm, Texas
Republican, with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and economist Martin
Feldstein, whose partial-privatization proposal has gotten some attention on the Hill
lately, seated at the dinner table. Today, Mr. Piñera delivers an address on privatization to a joint gathering of the Kansas
legislature in Topeka, with another speech in Kansas
City, where President Clinton's first town
meeting on Social Security will be held next Tuesday."
March 10, 1998. During the Q&A session after the Federal Reserve Chairman testimony to the
Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, there was this dialogue. Chairman
Kasich: "As
more people get interested in the idea of actually having a passbook account where they can see their
accumulated dollars, it begins to make them more comfortable with the concept that they actually own
something, as it has happened in Chile. I hope this would contribute to higher national savings
because when people tend to see the gains they make from
savings, there is really a natural feeling to
save more". Mr. Greenspan: "As a matter of
fact, a Chilean friend of mine said to me that
when the so-called recognition bonds came out, which essentially designated in a little passbook what
their Social Security net worth was, everyone carried them around and waved them as
though, you know, 'I've got wealth, I've got a commitment to the
economy, to the society', and I don't think
we should shortchange that. It may seem a bit beside the point from an economist's point of
view, but
sometimes we economists have got to see a somewhat larger
picture."
September
18, 1997. Governor George W.
Bush sends Jose Pinera this handwritten
note: "Dear Jose, Thanks
for coming to Austin to share your wisdom. All of us
enjoyed your comments. Congratulations on making a
difference. Respectfully, George Bush."
September
11, 1997. Invited
by Governor George W. Bush, Jose Pinera has dinner at his home
in Austin, Texas. Afterwards, in a two-hour meeting in
his study, he explains at lenght Chile's Social Security
Reform of 1980 and its consequences for Chile and the
world.
May
1, 1997. The
Cato Institute celebrates its 20th anniversary
in a gala dinner with 2.000 friends and sponsors at
the Washington Hilton. These were Jose Pinera's remarks.
April
29, 1997. From
a WSJ editorial: "An upcoming John Stossel report
on ABC will feature the work of Jose Pinera of the
Cato Institute, who as Chile's Minister of Labor
converted that country's Social Security system to
private retirement accounts. Since then, seven Latin
American countries have adopted variations of Mr.
Pinera's reform."
April
10, 1997. Jose
Piñera receives the "Liberty Award for
Opportunity" from Steve Forbes, former US
presidential candidate and President of
"Americans for Hope, Growth and
Opportunity", in a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria
ballroom in New York.
March
5, 1997. Only a
month before a general election, John Major's
government proposes a radical reform to the UK first
tier pension system, called the "Basic State
Pension". The Financial Times reports: “the
scheme, which bears some similarities to Chile’s
restructuring of pensions in 1981... would be the
biggest change to Britain’s welfare state since its
foundation in 1945” (March 6, 1997). In an
editorial the same day, “Pensions debate”, the FT
said that “at a stroke, Mr. Peter Lilley, the
social security secretary, has shifted the terms of
the welfare debate in an unexpectedly radical
direction.” It should be noted that the UK in
1986, under Margaret Thatcher, was the first country
to follow Chile in introducing choice in the
second tier of its pension system.
Since then, the UK has had a partially
privatized two-tier pension system.
September 19, 1996.
Letter from Labour MP Frank
Field, Chairman of the House of Commons Social
Security Committee, to JP: "It is hard to
exaggerate the influence you have had on the
developing
debate on the future of the pension system of the UK.
Your fluent advocacy of radical change of which we had
some indication when you appeared before the Select
Committee in May this year, continues to provide a
real challenge to those who seek to preserve in whole,
or in part, some of the existing network of pension
provision".
June
10, 1996. From
James Bartholomew's column in The Daily Telegraph:
"The Piñera plan encourages self reliance and
good results...I think that both the Conservative and
the Labor party should look at it eagerly. Either of
them could turn it into a vote-winner in a manifesto
for the next election...Social Security Secretary
Peter Lilley gave Mr. Piñera a private audience. But
the best encouragement I got was news of a small
incident: when Mr. Piñera gave his evidence to the
House of Commons's select committee on Social
Security, chairman Frank Field, a Labour MP, borrowed
Mr. Piñera's very own retirement account passbook.
This, I hope, represents the British establishment
beginning to get seriously interested."
May 20, 1996. JP
testifies in the House of Commons invited by Frank
Field, Labor MP and Chairman of the Social Security
Committee. The full testimony and the Q&A is
published as "Saving for Retirement: Minutes of
Evidence" by HMSO.
May 13, 1996. An
article by Jonathan Alter in today's Newsweek quotes
three-term former governor of Colorado Richard
Lamm about an experience he had a year ago
while staying in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White
House: "It is 12:30 at night, and Bill Clinton asks me and
Dottie: 'What do you know
about the Chilean social-security system?'" Alter
then writes that Clinton "arranged for a special
report about the innovative market-based Chilean
solution to be slipped under Lamm's door early the
next morning." Once I read this great story, I
found my way to meet Dick Lamm in his home in Denver
and asked him for that report. I got it, together with
the handwritten note by the U.S. President on White
House stationary: "3-21-95. Dick-Sorry I missed
you this morning. It was great to have you and Dottie
here-Here's the stuff on Chile I mentioned-Best, Bill."
January
28, 1996. Bill
Jamieson, economics editor of The Sunday Telegraph,
writes today in his column: "Dr. José Piñera is
one of the hottest properties in global economics. To
meet him in his office here in Santiago was an
experience equivalent to having a dynamite
charge...Piñera, one of the most engaging economists
it has been my privilege to meet, is advising Spain on
how to adopt his model and will visit London in the
spring. He is the pension´s world equivalent of José
Carreras or Plácido Domingo. Grab, beg, borrow or
steal a ticket to hear him speak. From this man and
this scheme Britain has much to learn."
January
26, 1996. Mack McLarty,
President Clinton's chief of staff, writes to
Jose Pinera after
meeting him in Santiago: "Without
doubt, the reform of Chile’s pension system has been
a critical contributing factor –some have called it
the mother of all reforms—to Chile’s ongoing
economic success. The social security reforms which
you developed and fought for have put your country on
a stable footing for the future. Although the Chilean
and North American experiences are different in
several key respects, I believe we can learn a great
deal from your country’s bold initiative, which is
widely envied throughout the hemisphere. Jose,
you are a strong and thoughtful voice for economic
reform; your legacy is secure."
August
14, 1995. The
Cato Institute's Project on Social
Security Privatization is launched with a news conference at the
National Press Club. The co-chairman are Jose
Pinera and Bill Shipman.
May
16, 1995. Jose
Pinera writes to Ed Crane: "A few days after our meeting
I visited Milton Friedman in his apartment in Hob Hill
and when I mentioned the Project, he praised the idea
and wished us every success...Once the other
co-chairman and the director are nominated, the
launching of the Project will be a good opportunity to
attract attention on this issue. August 14th, the 60th
anniversary of Social Security, has a symbolic
value."
April
27, 1995. Jose
Pinera and Ed Crane agree to
collaborate and create the "Cato Project on Social
Security Privatization".
December 12,
1994. After visiting Chile and
meeting JP, American journalist and writer Joe
Klein writes a compelling article in Newsweek titled "If
Chile can do it...
couldn´t North America privatize its social-security system?"
And he concludes: "the Chilean system is perhaps the first significant social-policy idea to emanate from the
Southern Hemisphere."
August
19, 1994. Jose
Pinera sends a letter to Ed Crane, President of the Cato
Institute, informing him of his decision to dedicate
himself fully to
promote all over the world the Chilean system of
personal retirement accounts, and tell him that "if
Cato is thinking of organizing a program on Social
Security Privatization, I hope you will be in touch
with us."
December
11, 1993. First presidential
elections in Chile under a democratic government,
after the succesfull transition that we envisioned in
the 1980 Constitution. Jose Pinera runs as an independent presidential candidate in
order to defend the free market revolution and propose
new reforms to transform Chile into a developed
country and a fully free society. Finish third among
six candidates in national vote, and first in
districts were he is allowed to deliver
his message, as
explained in this commentary.
He declares his mission accomplished in Chile.
May 20, 1988. Jose
Pinera is the guest of William F. Buckley Jr.'s guest
in his
influential "Firing Line" TV program. The program titled "Chile and a novel approach to Social
Security" airs on PBS this week (program number 1738). The "devil's advocate" is a
radical New York activist, Mark Green. This is the comment distributed by the Firing Line Newsletter:
"The discussion is at least as much about Chile´s struggle toward democracy as it is about
social security. The key to the hour is Mr. Piñera's persuasive charm. He describes his hopes for his
country's political and economic future with eager confidence, and it is easy to see how he convinced
a government that must have been dubious at best to try something new and daring. Mr. Green tries hard
to burst Mr. Piñera's bubble. His efforts yield more interesting information on the Chilean economy,
but ultimately fail to undercut Mr. Piñera's optimistic projections."
January 3,
1986. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the reform on Nov. 4, 1985,
Jose Pinera writes an article explaining the
Chilean Social Security Reform and its initial results. It is published today in the Op Ed page of the Wall Street Journal.
The editor, David Asman, titles it: "Chileans Unravel Social-Security Tangle."
October, 1981. The government of Margaret Thatcher invites
Jose Pinera to make an official visit to the
UK and explain Chile's Social Security, Trade Union
and Mining Reforms.
January, 1981. George
Shultz,
former Treasury secretary and now advising President-elect Ronald
Reagan, visits Jose Pinera in the Ministry of
Mining. He asks Pinera for a one-page memo on the reform to give to then
President Elect Ronald Reagan. The Dow Jones is at
900. A few days later, on January 25, Jose Pinera
receives a
letter from Shultz saying: "Dear
Mr. Minister: Onward social security, the labor code,
let alone the mining industry. I truly enjoyed our
conversations and I look forward to getting from you
the English language statement about your new and
creative Social Security system. I will also welcome
being informed of developments in it as you go along
and any additional thinking that occurs to you."
November 30,
1980. William F. Buckley Jr. writes enthusiastically about Chile´s SS
reform in his nationally syndicated column, reproduced in several newspapers in the USA. Two weeks ago,
he had lunch at Jose Pinera's office
since he was in Santiago, back from a sailing
trip.
November 6,
1980. The
Chilean Official Gazette publishes the
Social Security Reform laws and in the evening
Jose Pinera explains the reform to the country in a
nationally televised address (On this same day in 1917,
Lenin was taking over Petrograd and beginning the
Russian Revolution that turned every worker into a
slave of communism).
November 4,
1980. After almost two
years as Secretary of Labor and Social Security,
the government approves three
laws
entailing a comprehensive and pioneering Social Security
reform. The first one (Law # 3500) introduces a
national system of mandatory personal retirement accounts,
financed by the former payroll tax and managed by the private
sector (creating the future system of AFPs). The second
(Law # 3501) establishes the transition rules from the
pay-as-you-go system to the new one and also allows
workers to divert the mandatory health contribution
to a private provider (creating the future system of
ISAPRE).
The third (Law # 3502) rationalizes the paygo
system (creating the INP, a single government body to
pay benefits to current retirees and manage the paygo
system of those who decide to stay there after May 1,
1981).
May 1, 1980.
In his speech
at the celebration ceremony of Labor Day, with an audience of
3.000 labor and business
leaders, Jose Pinera announces the key definitions of
the project of
Social Security reform and explains his vision of a "nation of owners".
The speech emphasizes how this reform will strengthen the freedom
and dignity of workers. June
30, 1979.
The "Plan Laboral" is approved, a set of
labor laws that allow the resumption of trade union
activity in Chile. It radically decentralizes the process of collective
bargaining and eliminates any government
intervention in this sphere, thus
ensuring industrial peace, wage increases according to
productivity and not political clout, and a pro-employment public
policy. It also introduces totally free elections for
unions and trade organizations, to such an extent that
former President Frei's Labor Secretary William Thayer
called these laws "a general essay for the
restoration of democracy" in Chile. January
15, 1979.
Jose Pinera persuades the
leadership of the AFL-CIO of the injustice of imposing a boycott on
all Chilean foreign trade
to the U.S., as it was decided by them a few months
ago, and today George Meany backs off and lifts the threat. December
26, 1978.
Jose Pinera becomes Secretary of Labor and Social
Security of Chile.
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