Curriculum Vitae {en Español}​  "José Piñera is the pension world's equivalent of Placido Domingo. Grab, beg, borrow, or steal a ticket to hear him speak." Bill JamiesonEconomics Editor, London Sunday TelegraphJosé Piñera is Founder and President of the International Center for Capitalization Reform.He is also Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute in Washington D.C and Senior Fellow of the Istituto Bruno Leoni in Milan.​As Minister of Labor and Social Security of Chile (1978-1980), Dr. José Piñera was the architect of Chile's successful private pension system of personal retirement accounts.​​José has been  invited to speak at Clinton's  White House Summit on Social Security and to explain his Chilean reform to George W. Bush at his home in Austin. He has testified at the Social Security Committee of the UK House of Commons invited by its Chairman, Labor MP Frank Field, and also at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee invited by its Chairman, Republican Senator Phil Gramm.  He has met President Putin in his dacha outside Moscow and Prime Minister Romano Prodi at Palazzo Chigi in Rome. He has helped the Solidarity government in Poland and President Fox of Mexico. He has been visited in Santiago by parliamentary delegations from all over the world.He has shared the podium with Alan Greenspan and Milton Friedman.He has addressed the U.S. Business Roundtable and shared a panel with the Labor Ministers of France and Germany at the Davos World Economic Forum. He has been a keynote speaker at Cato Institute Conferences in Beijing, Shanghai, Moscow, St Petersburg, London, Tokyo, and been invited to speak at conferences sponsored by private corporations, think tanks and universities.José Piñera promotes all over the world the creation of pension systems based on personal retirement accounts. He does so with complete independence.He holds a Master and a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Harvard University.He has published numerous articles and written ten books.​​​Expanded Vitae  PhotosHigh res [1]Low res [3]

Perfiles [En Español]A foundation for liberal capitalism, by Niall Ferguson​Ed Crane and José Piñera, by Fred SmithBismarck vs Piñera, by Global Custodian Special Report​Creating wealth for workers, by Richard RahnLech Walesa, José Piñera, and human freedom, by Ian Vasquez​​Prophet of Reform: José Piñera in Jerusalem, by Seth Frantzman​Pension Reform Pied Piper, by Matt Moffett​Promoter of freedom and democracy, by José Luis Daza [In Italian] [In French]​​​Chile's Pension Reformer, by Peronet Despeignes​Chile's man from Harvard, by L. Francis Bouchey​Economists transforming the world, by Mark Skousen ​​José Piñera, the mastermind, by Star Parker ​Chile's hot pension model for Britain, by Bill Jamieson​What an Ageing Europe can learn from Chile?, by Kristian Niemietz​José Piñera's Mission to Reform Social Security, by Eric Simons​José Piñera with William F. Buclley Jr. by Firing Line TV​Chile: A Better Social Security System?, by William F. Buckley Jr.​Letter to José Piñera, by Edward H. Crane​Piñera, by Jan Oravec How we created the private pension system in Colombia, by Juan Manuel Santos​Seventy articles of José Piñera in defense of human rights, by Soames FlowerreeJosé Pinera, l'homme qui a assuré la richesse du Chili, by Bernard Martoia​​La Via Cilena Alla Previdenza che aiuta a risanare i conti, by Marco Panara​La rivoluzione liberale di Reagan e Piñera, by Istituto Bruno Leoni​ [En Español]

Artículos [En Español]REFORMS​​​​Empowering workers in ChilePresident Clinton and the Chilean ModelRetiring in Chile Chileans Unravel Social-Security TangleThe Bull by the Horns: The battle for Chile's Social Security ReformLatin America: a way outTowards a world of worker-capitalistsChile's 1979 Labor reform​The "freedom virus" that may transform China ​Bring on the Chilean Pension Reform​DEMOCRACY​ ​How we rebuilt democracy in ChileHow Chile was saved (a Twitter-class)Chile: How democracy was destroyedChile: How democracy was restoredChile's Salvador Allende years in eleven truthsMade in Chile: Open Letter to Charles Krauthammer​​PERSONAL​​Milton Friedman and World Freedom, a personal note.Using Twitter to Confront an Anti-Semitic Attack in Chile’s Paper of RecordNeruda's Postino

EL CASCABEL AL GATO[Texto completo del libro]Presentaciones de David Gallagher y de Sergio Baeza"Cabe felicitar a José Piñera, no sólo por su libro, sino por esta gran obra, producto de un hombre capaz de renunciar al placer tan tentador, aunque efímero, de ser el bueno de la película de turno. Capaz de renunciar a ese placer en aras de un bien común cuyos frutos sólo se darán después de años, aunque ahora parezca difícil creerlo, ahora que damos por sentados los frutos de esta Reforma, ahora que no nos imaginamos un Chile sin ellos".​David GallagherLA REVOLUCIÓN LABORAL EN CHILE[Texto completo del libro]Presentaciones de Bernardino Piñera y de Juan Andrés Fontaine "Me alegro de que este libro haya sido escrito. A los que lo lean con prejuicios, a favor o en contra, su lectura les hará bien, los hará más libres. Y a todos los que lo lean, aún sin prejuicio alguno, -si es que esto es posible-. les dará además el agrado de una lectura clara y amena, de un estilo terso y vigoroso, de un pensamiento coherente y seguro y, sobre todo, de un testimonio valiente y sincero". Bernardino Piñera, Arzobispo Emérito de La Serena.FUNDAMENTOS DE LA LEY CONSTITUCIONAL MINERA[Texto completo del libro]Presentación de Hernán Hochschild"Sin la Ley Orgánica Constitucional sobre Concesiones Mineras que está en sus manos, la minería privada no hubiese existido y Chile sería muy distinto, pues la economía de nuestro país sería 20 por ciento más pequeña".​Hernán Hochschild, presidente Sociedad Nacional de Minería.LIBERTAD, LIBERTAD MIS AMIGOS[Texto completo del libro]Comentario de Héctor Soto"Como autor de las Reformas Laboral, Previsional y Minera, José Piñera bien puede ser el expositor más exitoso y persuasivo de la modernización económica chilena. Este libro es una convocatoria a enfrentar las batallas del desarrollo con la fuerza de las ideas".​Héctor Soto, abogado y periodista.UNA CASA DE LIBERTADES​Cómo construimos una democracia madisoniana en Chile[Texto completo del libro][Full book in english]“Fui testigo de primera línea acerca de cómo José Piñera y este grupo de economistas de sólidas convicciones liberales transformaron a Chile en una sociedad libre, luchando por la libertad, la democracia y los derechos individuales en las más difíciles condiciones externas e internas”. George Landau, Embajador de Estados Unidos en Chile ​1977-1981.UNA CASA DIVIDIDACómo se destruyó la democracia en Chile[Texto completo del libro] [Full book in english][Libro completo in Italiano]"José Piñera, por fin, demuestra convincentemente que la remoción de Allende en 1973 fue el resultado del rechazo de las instituciones chilenas a sus reiteradas violaciones a los procedimientos democráticos y a sus esfuerzos por instalar en Chile un sistema totalitario".​Richard Pipes, Profesor Emérito de Historia, Universidad de Harvard.CAMINO NUEVO[Texto completo del libro]Prólogo de Gonzalo Vial"Ajeno a la política, no escribo este prólogo para el candidato José Piñera, sino para el José Piñera que conozco hace quince años; un hombre cuya vocación es el servicio público; que posee el don de aportar a ese servicio ideas originales, profundas y brillantes; y un segundo don: hacerlas realidad, y todavía un tercer don, el más maravilloso y trascendental... "vender" tales fórmulas teóricas y prácticas, convenciendo de ellas a tirios y troyanos".​Gonzalo Vial Correa, historiador y exministro de Educación.UNA PROPUESTA DE REFORMA DEL SISTEMA DE PENSIONES EN ESPAÑA [Leer propuesta]​En esta propuesta de reforma del sistema de pensiones de España, que incluye un modelo de simulación de distintos planes de transición con las cifras reales españolas, se demuestran las siguientes tres proposiciones: que el actual sistema estatal de reparto está abocado, desde una perspectiva económica, a la quiebra; que el modelo de capitalización individual es superior al sistema de reparto, tanto para el trabajador como para la sociedad; y que el plan que se propone de transición gradual desde un sistema a otro es viable desde un punto de vista fiscal.SIN MIEDO AL FUTUROEditado en España (1995)Introducción de Pedro Schwartz."¡Qué bien nos vendría a los españoles aprender de la experiencia chilena en materia de pensiones! El libro de José Piñera es sencillo, refrescante, optimista. Sostiene que es posible reformar un sistema de pensiones de reparto como el español, que está completamente quebrado, y transitar a uno de capitalización, con grandes beneficios para el trabajador y la economía".​Pedro Schwartz, profesor universitario.LE TAUREAU PAR LES CORNESPublié en France (2008)Introduction par Jacob Arfwedson"La situation est déséspérée, mais la solution existe. J’étais conscient de l’expérience du Chili, sans l’avoir étudiée. Depuis longtemps, il est de bon ton en France de rejeter les expériences de réforme d’autres pays, car cela «ne marcherait jamais chez nous». Il est temps de refuser ce mercantilisme intellectuel pour importer davantage d’idées de réforme."​Jacob Arfwedson, éditeur.DER WEG ZUM MÜNDIGEN BÜRGERPublished in Austria, 2007Introduction by professor Kurt Leube, visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.BEZEdited in Poland (1996) Introduction by Waclaw Wilczynski."It is especially important that the Polish readers should become aware of the spectacular success of the Chilean experience, yet again proving the superiority of the market economy over the centralistic authoritarian government management."​Waclaw Wilczynski, economist and university professor.PENSIONI, UNA RIFORMA PER SOPRAVVIVEREProspettive europee del modelo a capitalizzazione[Dossier/Pensioni]This book is a collection of essays by José Piñera, published by the Istituto Bruno Leoni. Dr. Piñera helped in the foundation of IBL, now the premier free-market Italian think tank (based in Milan). This book was presented at the Chamber of Deputies in Rome (Palazzo Montecitorio) in October 2004.  The Preface was written by Giancarlo Pagliarini, a former Minister of Labor. The panel of six political leaders who provided comments on the book ranged from Minister Remo Gaspari to Senator Franco Debeneddeti.CLOPOTELUL PISICIIEdited in Romania (2000)Introduction by Senator Cazimir Ionescu."During the interview that the Romanian delegation, comprised of members of parliament, union leaders, and journalists, had with José Piñera in his office in Santiago de Chile, the father of pension reform worldwide explained to us, with eloquence and simplicity typical of great innovators, how the greatest obstacle in achieving true social security reform was the fear of reducing the power of the State. The path from the excessive responsibility of the State towards a system that incentivizes individual responsibility is the journey described in this book. Along with revealing the dramatic history of the creation of the private pension system, this book provides an answer to a very current question: How can an economic and social revolution based on freedom be achieved? Where is the line in politics that divides the impossible from the possible?"Cazimir Ionescu, senator.THE BULL BY THE HORNSTranslated and published in South Korea by Sang-Uk HA (1990)THE LABOR REVOLUTION IN CHILE Translated and published in South Korea by Sang-Uk HA (1990) Letter from Sang-Uk HA to José Piñera (Inchon, Korea, 30.7.97)

CHILE​​​El Modelo Chileno: Derrotando la Pobreza con la Libertad, Conferencia Internacional del CATO Institute, Buenos Aires, 3 de junio, 2024​En Defensa del Sistema de Capitalización Chileno, programa El Informante (TVN), 3 de agosto, 2016 ​​​The Improbable Success of Chile, Documentary by Richard Rahn, Washington, 2015José Piñera: The Man Who Fought for Prosperity and Democracy in Chile, Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, programme Global Axess, Sweden​, 2005​Reformas Claves para Acelerar el Crecimiento y Terminar con la Pobreza en Chile​, Seminario BICE Inversiones, 25 de marzo, 2009Propuesta Educacional, Seminario PERCADE, 2003La Revolución Libertaria​, entrevista con Juan Guillermo Vivado, agosto, 1980 WORLDJosé Piñera discusses privatizing social security, Fox Business News, 1998Reinventing Social Security for the 21st Century, keynote speech at the annual Russell Summit, Palm Beach, 2006América Latina en Ruta al Primer Mundo, Conferencia en Lima, 2012¿Puede América Latina derrotar el subdesarrollo?​​, Universidad CATO-UFM, Ciudad de Guatemala, 24 de enero, 2010Los Padres Fundadores de los Estados Unidos y Lecciones para América Latina, Conferencia Inaugural, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, 25 de enero, 2010Liberty in the Americas: The Challenges Ahead​, APEE Anual Conference, Guatemala City, April 6, 2009The Debt Crisis of the West, 21st Annual Monetary Conference​, Washington D.C.José Pinera illustra il sistema pensionistico cileno​, Instituto Bruno Leoni, Milán, Italia

March 26, 2025. In a great victory for Chile's private pension system, Law 21.735 is published today. It keeps intact the pillars of the system of personal retirement accounts created in 1980. Moreover, the system is expanded by 60%, by raising the contribution rate from 10% to 16%.​November 1, 2016. Economía y Sociedad No 89 is published: “Chile: What is at stake”. In this way, the Fifth Epoch of this magazine is inaugurated to defend the three main pillars of the Chilean Model- the economic regime, the system of private retirement accounts and the 1980 Constitution- and to propose new ideas for the future.May 1, 2014. The Personal Retirement Accounts system has remained intact for 33 years of operation, under seven very different governments and various world crisis, without ever a peso being lost to theft or fraud, and with an extraordinary annual rate of return, above inflation, of 8.7% for workers.​​​Nov. 5, 2011. C-Span organized a conversation between Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain on the crucial problem of entitlements. Both Republican candidates proposed the Chilean Model of personal retirement accounts as the solution for the USA. Former Speaker Gingrich mentioned Jose Piñera, the architect of the Chilean Model, and called "breathtaking" the fact that the Chilean pension funds have accumulated the equivalent of 75% of GNP, resources that are behind the extraordinary growth of Chile in the last three decades.​Feb. 14, 2011. It is reported that 80% of Chileans students chose a private higher education institution in 2011. So, the 1975-1981 structural reforms have led to the prevalence of private education, private pensions and private copper production. Three enormous and positive transformations for the long term prospects of Chile.​​December 4, 2009. “ Chile is a stunning example of how embracing free markets and free trade brings prosperity”, affirms an IBD editorial titled “How Chile got rich”.​September 17, 2009. Thanks to the free market revolution of 1975-89, Chile is now No 5, surpassing the USA for the second year, in the 2009 Economic Freedom of the WorldReportDecember 18, 2008. In the Fraser/Cato 2008 ranking, that includes 141 countries, Chile is No 6 in economic freedom. The top 10 are: Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, UK, Chile, Canada, USA, Australia and Ireland.​September 11, 2008. It is extraordinary that, despite the leftist propaganda that has confused so many people, five top leaders in their fields, have dared to express their admiration for the legacy of the government presided by President Pinochet. They are Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the UK; Friedrich Hayek, Nobel laureate and public intellectual; Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate and Chicago economist; Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinean poet; and Paul Johnson, British historian.​May 15, 2008. Economist Richard Rahn publishes an article titled "A working model" asserting that: "We now know that both in theory and practice privatized social security works far better than pay-as-you-go government systems. Opponents can only keep their citizens from adopting Pinera-type systems by keeping them ignorant of the benefits, and making false statements about the privatized social security system's successes. Fortunately, the world still has a very vigorous Jose Pinera, who for three decades has made it his life's work to empower workers and make them small capitalists, freed from the government foot upon their necks. Mr. Pinera has already made life more secure and prosperous for millions, and with luck it will soon be billions of people."​March 11, 2008. In his latest book, historian Paul Johnson writes: "I admire Chile and its people greatly, and became concerned when my friend Salvador Allende became its president and opened the country to hordes of armed radicals from all over the world. The result was the world´s highest inflation, universal violence and the threat of civil war. So I applauded the takeover by General Pinochet, on the orders of Parliament, and still more his success in reviving the economy and making it the soundest in Latin America. But by preventing the transformation of Chile into a Communist satellite, the general earned the furious hatred of the Soviet Union, whose propaganda machine successfully demonized him among the chattering classes all over the world. It was the last triumph of the KGB before it vanished into history´s dustbin. But Pinochet remains a hero to me because I know the facts." ("Heroes. From Alexander The Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and De Gaulle", Harpers Collins Publishers, New York, 2007, page 279.)​August 11, 2007. The Economist publishes an article about the consequences of the Chilean Revolution titled "A country that pioneered reform comes close to abolishing poverty".January 29, 2007. At an event in New York honoring Milton Friedman, who died a month ago, I am invited to speak about his international impact. Here are my remarks. The other speakers are William Niskanen, Cato Institute's Chairman, and Paul Gigot, Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Editor.​January 2, 2007. The "Index of Economic Freedom" compiled by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal for 2006 places Chile again in the extraordinary position of No 11 among 157 countries ranked. Hong Kong is No 1, followed by developed countries like Singapore, Australia, USA, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Canada. And then comes Chile, the first country from the vast emerging world. After Chile comes Estonia, and then Denmark, Netherlands, etc. The last two are communist Cuba (156) and North Korea(157). Venezuela is No 144, below Bangladesh (143). On "Property Rights" protection, Chile shares the top ranking position with countries like the USAand the UK.​December 15, 2006. Historian James Whelan publishes a clarifying article: "The truth about the victims of political violence in Chile".​December 15, 2006. "In Chile's history there are only three inflection points: the independence from Spain, the Pacific War, and the free market economic revolution carried out during the Pinochet government" (César Barros, Qué Pasa magazine).​December 5, 2005. For the first time in Chilean history, in 2004 more children were in private schools (50.66%) than in municipal (or government) schools (49.34%, down from 70% ten years ago). According to the trends, it is projected that only 36% of the children will be in a government school by 2010. In another of our reforms of the early 80s, parents were allowed to choose a private school for their children, in which case the school receives a monthly payment by the government (an imperfect voucher system). An expert has concluded that "the most recent studies find significant differences in test scores between student educated at private voucher schools and those educated at municipal voucher schools" (Claudio Sapelli, "The Chilean Education Voucher System", in What America Can Learn from School Choice in Other Countries, Cato Institute, 2004). The Heartland Institute affirms that " Chile and Sweden are two countries that have experienced vast increases in private (independent) schools as a result of voucher systems launched within the past two decades."​November 6, 2005. On Nov. 6, 1917, Lenin takes power in Russia and admonishes: "Workers of the world, unite" (Of course, under the dictatorship of Lenin). On Nov. 4, 1980, Chile creates a pension system that allows every worker to become a small capitalist, and originates a much more appealing vision: "Workers of the world, become owners and thus free". ​November 4, 2005. In "Venticinque anni dopo. La rivoluzione liberale di Reagan e Pinera", the Istituto Bruno Leoni celebrates 25 years since the election of Ronald Reagan and the approval of Chile's pioneering Social Security Reform, both on November 4, 1980. The Cato Institute also celebrates this day stating that "Ronald Reagan was the most eloquent spokesman for limited government of our time" and that "the success of the Chilean system has served as a model for pension reform around the world." A good day to read NYT's John Tierney dossier on the success of Chile's private pension system:  The Proof is in the PensionPlace Your Bets,The Old and the Rested,​October 29, 2005. Chile signed a Free Trade Agreement with China, our second biggest trade partner after the USA. This is the first such agreement of China with a non-Asian country. Chile now has FTAs with countries representing 74.4% of the world GNP. As suggested in my Agenda 2010, presented two years ago, China was a priority and the next steps should be FTAs with Japan and India.​October 24, 2005. The AFPs, extraordinarily successful in getting a high rate of return for all its workers-clients (annual average of 10% real for 24 years), have also exercised, shepherded by the law, a remarkable degree of prudence in investing the pension funds. The portfolio composition of the private pension system is the following: 29.3% invested in the financial sector, 28.9% abroad, 24.8% in corporate bonds and stocks, and only 16.9% in government bonds (less than the government share of the economy). As I explained at length 25 years ago in my weekly TV commentaries, pension fund investing should be guided by the common sense rule of "not all eggs in the same basket". It has worked.​August 26, 2005. Law 20.050 is published today with amends to the Constitution. The non-elected institutional senators and the decorative National Security Council are eliminated, among other adjustments related to the political process (also a welcomed 4-year presidential term, without reelection). The crucial chapter on "individual rights" is kept intact, as well as the basic institutions and orientation of the Constitution of 1980. The governing Concertación wrongly attempted to change the definition that " Chile is a democratic Republic" (Article 4) for " Chile is a social State", but failed to get the necessary votes. Nobody even mentioned the need to eliminate the anachronistic clause prohibiting CODELCO to have private shareholders. The bipartisan amendments were approved in Congress by 150 votes in favor, three against, and one abstention.​August 11, 2005. The transition financing from a pay-as-you-go to a personal accounts retirement system proceed even better than planned 25 years ago. Chile will have at least a 4% of GNP budget surplus in 2005, helped by very high copper prices and production levels. This surplus is 'after' spending another 3 percent of GNP on the retirees of the unfunded government pension system and a further 1.2 percent of GNP on paying "Recognition Bonds" to workers reaching retirement age in the private pension system (these are zero-coupon Treasury bonds used in the 1980 Pension Reform to compensate, for past contributions, those workers that freely decided to opt out from the government system). Since the hidden pension debt is fast disappearing in Chile and the government external debt is only 8% of GNP, the day will come when world capital markets will recognize that Chile's sovereign debt is much safer than that of developed countries with huge implicit pension liabilities like France, Germany, Italy and Spain.​July 1, 2005. "It isn't hard to come up with examples of famous pro-Americans, even on the generally anti-American continents of Europe and Latin America. There are political reformers such as Vaclav Havel, who has spoken of how the U.S. Declaration of Independenceinspired his own country's founding fathers. There are economic reformers such as José Piñera, the man who created the Chilean pension system, who admire American economic liberty. There are thinkers, such as the Iraqi intellectual Kanan Makiya, who openly identify the United States with the spread of political freedom. All of these are people with very clear, liberal, democratic philosophies, people who either identify part of their ideology as somehow 'American', or who are grateful for American support at some point in their countries' history." (Pulitzer Prize's Anne Applebaum, In Search of Pro-Americanism, Foreign Policy, July/August, 2005).​June 1, 2005. Ten private mining companies, that decided to invest in Chile after the 1981 Constitutional Mining Law ensured full respect for property rights, will pay aproximately US$ 2 billion in income taxes in 2005 (around 25% of the total government foreign debt). The total tax contribution is still higher, since that figure does not include many other indirect taxes generated by the process of mining production (income taxes of suppliers and workers, VAT, etc). Chile's copper production may reach 5.5 million tons this year (up from 1 million in 1981) and so the country will turbo-benefit from the historically high prices.​May 21, 2005. In his State of the Union, President Ricardo Lagos, a former socialist, praises the new Chile that has emerged thanks to the freedom revolution began in 1975. Here his exact words describing "Chile, un caso de desarrollo exitoso" (Chile, a case of succesfull development).​May 1, 2005. After 24 years of operation, without ever losing a peso for the workers through fraud or improprieties, the Chilean private pension system has accumulated US$ 80 billion (equivalent to 75% of GNP). That figure is composed of US$ 67 billion in the pension funds and US$ 13 billion in the insurance companies that provide the life annuities originating from the capitalization system. It is estimated that the system's resources may peak at 100% of Chilean GNP. All Chilean workers in the system (7.1 million) have benefitted from a compounded average real (above inflation) rate of return of 10.1% over 24 years (The Social Security system of the United States provides current workers an equivalent annual rate of return of only 1%).​February 1, 2005. The influential socialist author Robert Heilbroner dies, but not before reaching this conclusion: "Capitalism has been as unmistakable a success as socialism has been a failure. Here is the part that's hard to swallow. It has been the Friedmans, Hayeks, and von Miseses who have maintained that capitalism would flourish and that socialism would develop incurable ailments. All three have regarded capitalism as the 'natural' system of free men; all have maintained that left to its own devices capitalism would achieve material growth more successfully than any other system. I draw the following discomforting generalization: The farther to the right one looks, the more prescient has been the historical foresight; the farther to the left, the less so." (Dissent, Fall 1990)​January 1, 2005. The 2005 version of the Index of Economic Freedom, compiled by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, places Chile as No 11 in its ranking. Since the United States is No 12, this is an extraordinary achievement of the Chilean free-market revolution. The next highest ranking Latin American country is El Salvador (No 24), while Argentina is No 114. The bottom one is, naturally, communist North Korea(No 155). Hong Kong is No 1 and Estonia, the Baltic Tiger, is No 4.​November 23, 2004. Fareed Zakaria writes in a column at The Washington Post: "The U.S. government can claim little credit for Chile's remarkable and successful free-market revolution. But the University of Chicago -- which trained most of the economists who spearheaded those reforms in Santiago -- can. Foreign students return home from the United States bringing with them an appreciation for U.S.values, ideas and, indeed, for America itself." July 21, 2004. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate rejects the government project to change the Constitutional Mining Law that would have weakened property rights.​May 28, 2004. A Business Week article 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'."​December 11, 2002. It is announced in Washington that a Free Trade Agreement has been signed between the two countries. In the press conference, the US negotiator, Ambassador Robert Zoellick, states: "One of the nice things in this agreement is that we have some additional access in Chile to pension fund management within a social security system that I wish we could imitate." Reversing its previous position of seeking a Mercosur agreement, President Lagos signs the FTA with the United Statesand the Chilean Congress approves it almost unanimously.​October 6, 1999. "What about the fact that Chile was turned from chaotic collectivism into the model economy of Latin America? What about the fact that more people were housed, that medical care was improved, that infant mortality plummeted, that life expectancy rose, that highly effective programmes against poverty were launched? Why don't they tell the world that it was President Pinochet who established a Constitution for the return to democracy?" (Margaret Thatcher, Speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool).​September 27, 1999. John Kasich, Chairman of the Budget Committee of the US House of Representatives, writes to José Piñera after his testimony: "I could not be more grateful for your recent appearance before the House Budget Committee. You fundamentally transformed our Social Security debate: You got us thinking not about numbing statistics, but about how best to promote the human spirit. Your obvious commitment to an idea - of making every man and woman a shareholder in their nation's economy - and your focus on people rather than numbers made your testimony compelling even for Members who favor an approach different from yours. I look forward to working with you in the months ahead. Our approach clearly will be tailored to our own circumstances, but the experience of Chile and other countries will offer valuable guidance. Your impressive command of the issues, as well as your personal experience, can teach us a great deal."​August 5, 1998. James Flanigan writes in the Los Angeles Times: "In a sense, it all began in Chile. In the early 1970s, Chile was one of the first economies in the developing world to test such concepts as deregulation of industries, privatization of state companies, freeing of prices from government control, and opening of the home market to imports. In 1981, Chile privatized its social-security system. Many of those ideas ultimately spread throughout Latin Americaand to the rest of the world. They are behind the reformation of Eastern Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union today... which demonstrates, once again, the awesome power of ideas."  September 18, 1997. George W. Bush, governor of Texas, writes to José Piñera after dinner and a brainstorming at the governor mansion in Texas: "José, Thanks for coming to Austin to share your wisdom. All of us enjoyed your comments. Congratulations on making a difference."​January 26, 1996. Mack McLarty, President Clinton's chief of staff, writes to José Piñera after a meeting 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."  March 20, 1994. The day before her speech in Santiago, she asks to meet in private with the core team that implemented "thatcherism before Thatcher". We meet for dinner at the Santiago Hyatt hotel. In her conference the next day she says: "Since socialism was defeated in 1973, Chile has been transformed into a signal example of economic reforms and material progress. And with the return of democracy you are also giving an example of political maturity and national reconciliation".​June 26, 1991. Reversing his previous positions and the Aylwin candidacy program, Alejandro Foxley, Finance Minister, announces that the flat tariff policy will be maintained and announces its reduction from 15% to 11%. This is an important step in the consolidation of the Chilean Revolution, since it gives a clear signal that the Aylwin government will follow the strategy of open trade and no tariff discrimination.​April 1, 1991. Extreme leftists assassinate senator Jaime Guzman. For years, many members of the left had conducted a campaign of demonizing Guzman because he was one of the main authors of the 1980 Constitution and a key ally of the team of free market economists. They were shocked when Guzman was elected to the Senate in the parliamentary elections of December 1989 and became arguably the best senator in Congress. His assassination decapitated the opposition and deprived the country of an extraordinary human being. He was one of my closest personal and intellectual friends, and we fought together many battles for liberty, democracy and human rights.​March 11, 1990. Strictly according to the transitory articles of the 1980 Constitution, and once the institutions for democracy were in place, President Pinochet, in a formal ceremony in the new Congress building in Valparaiso, hands the traditional presidential sash to Patricio Aylwin, winner of the December 1989 presidential election (interestingly, Aylwin was the Christian Democrat former senator who wrote the conclusions of the Resolution of August 22, 1973, that demanded the removal of Allende). A great day for Chile, and especially for the Reconstruction Government economic and civilian team, that had fought persistently for this peaceful and constitutional transfer of power, that ensured the survival of the free market revolution, the consolidation of the structural reforms, the insertion of Chile into the global community, and the consolidation of a free society. Through the power of ideas, a new Chile has emerged.​November 9, 1989. A great day for freedom. Chile was a pioneer in defeating communism in 1973, inflicting an unexpected defeat to the expansionist policies of the Soviet Union and Cuba. Years later, Anne Applebaum will describe communism as a story of horrors in her review of "The Black Book of Communism" and in her book "Gulag". The free market reforms in Chile also preceded those of Thatcher (elected in 1979) and Reagan (elected in 1980), and thus the subsequent international movement toward markets, open borders and private initiative.​October 10, 1989. Law 18.840 establishes the structure and operation of an independent Central Bank, taking away monetary policy from the government for the first time in the history of Chile. Another key achievement of the economic team. In a gesture of civic friendship, the government reaches an agreement with opposition leaders on the composition of the five members Board and even allows an economist from their ranks to be the first Chairman.​September 29, 1989. Law 18.838 allows the private sector to establish TV channels, until now only reserved to the State (directly through a government channel and indirectly through the channel of the state owned University of Chile) and the Catholic Church. This is a great step for freedom of expression.​July 30, 1989. A referendum takes place to approve some adjustments to the Constitution. The text is negotiated between the government and all the political leaders. With an approval vote of more than 90%, the Constitution of 1980 is further validated.​October 5, 1988. According to the 1980 Constitution, a yes/no plebiscite takes place to decide whether the government candidate (General Pinochet) should be President for another term. President Pinochet obtains 44% of the vote, and therefore, as contemplated in the transitory articles of the Constitution, an open presidential election is called for December 1989.​May 20, 1988. I am the guest of William F. Buckley Jr.'s TV program "Firing Line" in a session titled Chile and a novel approach to Social Security which airs today in PBS (program number 1738). This is the comment distributed later 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." The "devil's advocate" is a well known New York leftist activist, Mark Green (future candidate for Major of New York), who unable to attack the results of the private Chilean pension system, decides to doubt the success of our fight to restore democracy in Chile. We had a lively confrontation and I even invite him to Chile to be a witness of the coming transition process.​February 12, 1985. My former advisor at the Labor Ministry, Hernán Buchi, becomes Finance Minister. His mission is to overcome the economic downturn and to consolidate the economic model. He launches a radical program of privatization in the energy and telecommunications area.August 31, 1983. It must be said that the free market reforms were subject, from the very beginning, to the most unfair attacks by the leading leftist politicians that were, directly or indirectly, responsible in the 60s and early 70s for the destruction of Chile's democracy and its quasi civil war. After the 1982 Latin American and Chilean economic crisis, the attacks reached unprecedented levels. Today former Christian Democrat presidential candidate (1970) Radomiro Tomic made the following statement: "If the Mining Law remains, we will loss a hundred times the value of the Patagonia in the next half century". Later he will say: "The Mining Law is the greatest crime committed against Chile since O'Higgins to these days" (30.11.83). This sort of opposition made it much more difficult for the pro-democracy camp inside the Reconstruction government to accelerate the process of power devolution. One is reminded of the statement done by an adviser during the Thatcher's government in the 80s: "Our role is to stay here until it emerges in the UK a sane opposition".​June 30, 1982. The fixed exchange rate system, that pegged the peso at CH$39 per dollar since June 1979, is abandoned after President Pinochet dismissed Sergio de Castro, the Finance Minister who insisted in keeping the peg against all evidence showing the enormous loss of competitiveness of the Chilean economy. This mistake led to a huge crisis and almost destroyed the economic model and the transition to democracy. In his Memoirs, Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman states: "In the euphoria of the rapid decline in inflation and rise in economic growth, the authorities decided in 1979 to peg the exchange rate of the Chilean peso to the U.S. dollar. The rate of inflation in the U.S. at the time was in the low double digits –high for the United States but lower than inflation in Chile. By pegging, the Chilean authorities hoped to bring the Chilean rate of inflation to the U.S. rate. They got more than they bargained for, thanks to the economic policy introduced by President Reagan in 1981, which brought inflation down sharply in the U.S. and led to a sharp appreciation in the U.S. dollar. The peg imposed strong deflationary pressure on Chile, resulting in severe recession. Gross domestic product fell by 13 percent in 1982 and by 3.5 percent in 1983. The architect of the peg, Finance Minister Sergio de Castro, was relieved of his post in April 1982, and the peg was abandoned...Once the peg was dropped and the exchange rate allowed to adjust, rapid real growth resumed. The sharp recession left its mark and undoubtedly was one reason why a plebiscite in October 1988 on the Pinochet government yielded a different result than that in 1980."("Two Lucky People", Chapter 24, pp. 405-406)​January 25, 1982.  " Chile is an economic miracle...but Chile is an even more amazing political miracle. A military regime has supported reforms that reduce sharply the role of the state and replace control from the top with control from the bottom." (Milton Friedman in a Newsweek column; the Nobel laureate repeated this assessment 12 years later, once Chile had engineered a peaceful and constitutional transition to a democracy, in a letter published in the January/February 1994 issue of Foreign Affairs).​December 1, 1981. Ten years after Allende´s constitutional reform abolishing property rights in this crucial sector of the Chilean economy, the Constitutional Mining Law is approved today reversing that process and initiating an explosive period of huge wealth creation. The Constitutional Tribunal of independent, life appointed, judges approves it seven to zero. On December 2, I resigned voluntarily and definitively from my Cabinet post to fight more freely for liberty and the transition to democracy.​October 11, 1981. I am invited to visit the United Kingdom as an official guest of the government presided by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. During an intense week I had multiple meetings with governments experts. I delivered the keynote speech at the annual meeting of the London Metal Exchange. I had lunch with Evelyn Rothschild and entrepreneurs in the City. I had a brainstorming session with editor Andrew Knight at The Economist and his team. Another interesting meeting was with historian Hugh Thomas at the House of Lords. Also a dinner with businessman James Goldsmith. A very productive conferences at both the Institute of Economic Affairs (with Lord Harris presiding) and the Adam Smith Institute. There was enormous interest in Chile's free market experience, and especially in the pension, labor and mining reforms.​October 9, 1981. I preside the Chilean delegation to the funeral of the assassinated President of Egypt. In an El Cairo under state of siege, I join the funeral procession with heads of state and authorities of all the major countries. Among them, Prince Charles, King Baudoin, Menahem Begin, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, and many others. The US delegation is headed by Secretary of State Alexander Haig, and includes three former presidents–Nixon, Ford and Carter- and Henry Kissinger. Here the article I wrote on this trip.​September 25, 1981. Law 18.032, promoted by Labor Minister Miguel Kast, ends the trade union monopoly in Chilean ports. Soon after, productivity in ports experience a significant increase as work begin to be organized freely and efficiently, eliminating a potential bottleneck to Chilean exports.​August 4, 1981. Today I am informed by the executives of Utah International that they have discovered what could become the largest copper mine in the world, called La Escondida, located near the northern city of Antofagasta. The initial investment required to develop would amount to at least US$ 2 billion. Without a law protecting mining property rights, this wealth would remain for ever under the ground.​April 27, 1981. DFL No 3 creates the system of ISAPRES. These are private health companies that provide an insurance plan that can be bought with the mandatory health contribution of 4% of wages by those workers who choose to do so. This option was made possible by the Pension Reform of 1980.​April 1, 1981. In a Cabinet meeting, generally just informative ones given Chile's presidential and not parliamentary system, a military aide enters the room and, in an unusual act of indiscretion, tells aloud to President Pinochet that the leftist trade union leader Manuel Bustos is going to be exiled that same night for calling for violent street demonstrations. I fear that this action may derail the whole transition process. So, I decide to confront the President and argue respectfully but strongly against this decision. I make the case that exile is not only a cruel punishment to anyone, but also completely contradictory with this period of constitutional government, despite the emergency powers granted to the President by transitory article 24. General Pinochet reacts angrily. To him, not only I am Minister of Mining and thus interfering outside my field in an issue he considers a national security one, but he resents the fact that I am compelled by circumstances to confront him in front of the full Cabinet with several generals and admirals among them. To his credit, he finally rescinds the order and announces that Bustos will not be exiled "this time". ​March 11, 1981. Today we celebrate the return of Chile to constitutional rule. In fact, a new Constitution, replacing the suspended one of 1925, was approved by referendum on September 11, 1980. It established, beginning March 11, 1981, a transition period, headed by President Pinochet, under the norms of the 1980 Constitution, which could not be reformed without a referendum. This period task was to gradually create the institutions for an effective democracy: an independent Central Bank, private television, an electoral system, a Constitutional Tribunal, etc. Without these institutions, the return to a democratic system would be fragile and unstable. As Alexander Solyenitsin would say many years after, referring to the problematic Russian transition to democracy:"The road to democracy takes time and patience and that applies to both intellectuals and politicians. An automobile cannot come down from a high mountain by driving off a cliff. It needs to take the long series of switchbacks. People wanted a democratic Russia overnight, without a period of transition, of learning and of growing accustomed to it."​January 25, 1981. I receive a letter from George Shultz, head of president-elect Ronald Reagan transition team and president of the Bechtel Group, that opens with this enthusiastic statement: "onward social security, the labor code, let alone the mining industry". Shultz visited me in the second week of January at the Ministry of Mines in Santiago. We had a long conversation on the free market reforms in Chile and the prospects of a Reagan presidency. He was so impressed by our Social Security Reform, approved only 2 months ago, that he asked me if I could write a one-page memo to Reagan on "your new and creative system" (which of course I did).​January 3, 1981. Until now, only the State and the Catholic Church were allowed to have universities in Chile(and TV stations). From now on, there is complete freedom to establish new universities, subject to an accreditation mechanism, as well as professional institutes and centers of technical training. A few months later (15.9.81), the National Fund for Science and Technology (Fondecyt) is created, substituting the criteria of distribution of state subsidies to R&D. Instead of a lump sum to the traditional universities, a method was created to allocate subsidies on the merits of specific research projects, decided by a jury of experts.December 1, 1980. The first free market think tank is founded by a group related to the classical liberal economists. The "Centro de Estudios Públicos" (CEP) has the former Finance Minister, Jorge Cauas, as President, and Nobel prize laureate, Friedrich Hayek, as Honorary President. Cauas travels to Friburg University to meet Hayek, explain him the Chilean Revolution, and offer the Honorary Presidency, which he accepts and holds until his death. Hayek travels in 1981 to Chile to the inauguration of CEP and leads with an essay the No 1 issue of "Revista de Estudios Públicos". We had a long conversation about the labor and pension reforms. In 1981, he writes to Thatcher advocating the Chilean reform for the UK (the exchange is in the Hoover archives).​November 4, 1980. After two years of extremely hard work with my team to design the new system, define hundreds of important technical details, devise a viable transition strategy, write the bills, and educate the public, today it is approved the Social Security Reform creating an individual capitalization system based on personal retirement accounts. It creates a new pension paradigm based on freedom and personal responsibility, and fully replaces the collectivist, state managed, pay-as-you-go system. This Reform signals the climax of the Chilean Revolution and Chile becomes a world pioneer in this area. (In this same day, Ronald Reagan is first elected President of the United States).​September 11, 1980. In a referendum, the new Constitution is approved by 67% of the vote against 30%. On March 11, 1981 it will replace the Constitution of 1925.​August 14, 1980. At 6 a.m. three workers at Gdansk's Lenin Shipyard declare a strike. Within hours, thousands of others join their sit-in. By 11 a.m., Lech Walesa, a former electrician at the yard, scales its perimeter wall and takes charge of an impromptu strike committee. The Solidarity movement in Poland is born, marking the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.​August 8, 1980. In a Cabinet meeting, we all sign the project of a new Constitution for Chile, to be submitted to a referendum on September 11. There are important advances in the permanent text (especially in the field of individual rights), as well as some provisions that are wrong and should be eliminated in the future (like an ineffectual National Security Council or the institution of designated senators). The extraordinary achievement is that it enshrines a path towards the devolution of political power from an emergency authoritarian to a fully democratic government. In my TV commentaries, I called it "The Constitution of Liberty" after the title of an important book of Friedrich Hayek.​July 24, 1980. Former Minister of Labor under Eduardo Frei, William Thayer, calls the free election of thousands of trade union leaders "a general trial-run for the restoration of democracy." He adds in an interview in the magazine Que Pasa: "The Plan Laboral has been an enormous act of courage of Minister José Piñera, his team and the government. It creates a full trade union democracy in a country that is still in a situation of emergency in the most important areas. It is remarkable that it has been in the labor sector where democracy has been first completely re-established."​October 1979. The new Trade Union Act contemplates the possibility of market-disciplined strikes when workers and employers do not reach agreement in the collective bargaining process (so-called "chaos strikes" at any moment and for any reason are prohibited). Only in a handful of companies-generally state monopolies in "strategic" areas like water, telephone, oil, electricity- the failure of agreement does not lead to strike, but to compulsory arbitration by independent arbitrators (not by the government). An original provision of the Plan is the introduction of "pendulum arbitration" (the arbitrator has to choose between the last positions of one side or the other, but not the middle way). In this way management and labor are encouraged to make responsible contract offers, lest the other side's full proposal be mandated by the arbitrator. This mechanism is successfully tested and proven in the case of the state oil company, ENAP.​June 30, 1979. A new Trade Union Act. The so called "Plan Laboral" reinaugurated union activity in Chile, after six years of suspension, under a new pro-employment and pro-democracy paradigm. The new Code reconciled collective bargaining with an open market economy, made union affiliation totally voluntary, and fostered internal democracy. A constitutional change is also needed to include the powerful copper mining workers, whose monopolistic trade union structure ("El estatuto de trabajadores delcobre") is enshrined in the Constitution.​December 26, 1978. I accept the invitation to enter the Cabinet. Before doing so, I explicitly tell President Pinochet that my cause is not only prosperity, but also freedom, rule of law, and democracy (the full story about this meeting is in my book "La revolución laboral en Chile", 1990). I feel a moral duty to contribute to my country in an extremely difficult moment (the challenge to rebuild an economy and a democracy, an imminent war with Argentina and a trade boycott threat from the AFL-CIO). Though I was offered initially the Ministry of Economy, I become Minister of Labor and Social Security in order to focus on two great structural reforms that I have been promoting in public debate: Pensions and Labor reforms that can have significant economic, social and political consequences.​May 25, 1978. A "perfect storm" was threatening Chile: an antagonistic Carter presidency; a trade boycott threat by the AFL-CIO; an aggressive Argentine military Junta that rejected a British Crown arbitration ruling about the Beagle islands; the abominable assassination of Allende's Minister Orlando Letelier in the streets of Washington; a proposal by the powerful group of "duros" (hardliners) inside the Reconstruction government to install a "war economy" and stop any movement toward democracy; a Junta member, Air Force general Gustavo Leigh, and Army generals of the Comité Asesor, vacillating about the economic strategy. With Jaime Guzman, leader of the "gremialistas" group, we plan a private dinner at his apartment with three key government ministers. We invite Minister of Interior Sergio Fernandez, Minister of Finance Sergio de Castro, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hernan Cubillos, and leading free market entrepreneur Manuel Cruzat. We review the extremely dangerous internal and foreign situation. We agree to renew efforts, in all dimensions, to go for a new Constitution setting the timetable for the re-establishment of democracy and at the same time accelerate the economic and social free market reforms. I remember Marechal Foch's dictum: "My rear is blocked, my flanks are giving away, so I attack!" ​March 3, 1978. Professor Jeffrey Hart of Darmouth College writes in his "Letter from Santiago" in National Review: "During the First World War, many American writers experienced a powerful desire to see the Western Front in France. These Americans needed to feel the reality of the trenches. They knew that something important was happening there. It was with some analogous conviction that I decided to go to Chile. Warfare now takes more complex forms. But there can be no question that Chile is an important sector of the front line in a colossal global military-political-ideological struggle that makes World War I look like an Indian raid." ​May 27, 1977. In the annual conference of the Alumni Foundation at the School of Economics of the Catholic University, I presented a paper that stated that Chile could be a developed and free country if it undertakes a coherent and radical set of liberty-oriented structural reforms. I postulated that Chile can double its historic rate of growth of only 3% (around 1% per capita), emphasizing that if a 7% average growth rate is achieved, GNP could double in 10 years and quadruple in 20, making possible a substantial reduction in poverty and a stable free society. Immediately after, I am asked to repeat the same presentation to President Pinochet, whom I have never met, the Legislative Junta of the Commanders in Chief, the full Cabinet, and all the deputy Ministers. It seems to me that President Pinochet and the Junta are intrigued by my proposal of going beyond a Chicago economics transformation, needed as it was, toward a more comprehensive freedom revolution (free markets, rule of law, human rights, and democracy) based on the vision of the Founding Fathers of America and the ideas of those thinkers of liberty like John Locke, Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek.​(Note. I was at Harvard during the 1970-73 Alllende government. At the end of 1974, already a Ph.D. in Economics and Teaching Fellow at Harvard, I faced a very difficult choice: to either remain in Boston enjoying the academic life I loved so much, or to go back to help found a new country from the ashes of the old one. As The Economist stated in an editorial, Allende and his followers had destroyed democracy in Chile, and on September 11, 1973, obeying the Chamber of Deputies Resolution of August 22, 1973, the Armed Forces had removed marxist President Salvador Allende. I decided to go back to help my country that was in ruins. In March 1975, I began promoting the ideas of economic, social, and political liberty in public debate, and informally helping my friend and former professor Jorge Cauas, then Finance Minister.)

ABC. Me fascinó este género literario cuando leí el libro "Milosz's ABC" (2001), una colección de breves reflexiones, ordenadas alfabéticamente, del poeta polaco Czeslav Milosz (Premio Nobel de Literatura 1980). Una selección de esta naturaleza no sólo constituye un compendio de ideas y experiencias, sino que también trasunta el "imago mundi" del autor.A​ARGENTINA. Un país con enorme potencial pero que agoniza desde hace un siglo. Como lo sostuvo Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina perdió su rumbo cuando escogió un paradigma errado a comienzos del siglo XX, prefiriendo el gobierno de caudillos carismáticos al gobierno de las leyes. Quien mejor ha narrado esta tragedia es el antropólogo argentino Edgardo Krebs en "Argentina: The failure of a civic idea".B​​BASTIAT, FREDERIC. Admiro a este economista francés (1801-1850) que luchó arduamente por la libertad, tras las pugnas sanguinarias en que culminó la Revolución Francesa. De sus numerosos ensayos, "La Ley" (1848) refleja la esencia de su pensamiento. El más conocido es "La Petición" , una breve y lúcida sátira contra el proteccionismo. Bastiat denunció duramente los impuestos y subsidios arbitrarios y sostuvo que el Estado "se ha transformado en el mecanismo mediante la cual todos tratamos de vivir a expensas de los demás". Una buena biografía es aquella de George Roche "Frédéric Bastiat: A Man Alone". Su discípulo Courcelle Seneuil enseñó en Chile y tuvo una enorme influencia en el siglo XIX. He rezado frente a su tumba en la Iglesia San Luis de los Franceses en Roma.​​ BIBLIOTECAS. Como buen amante de los libros, me fascinan las bibliotecas. El gran poeta Jorge Luis Borges afirmó: “Siempre imaginé que el Paraíso sería algún tipo de biblioteca.” Estuve casi dos años escribiendo mi tesis de doctorado en un escritorio ubicado en las entrañas de la fabulosa "Widener Library" de la Universidad de Harvard, la segunda más grande del mundo. En Europa he visitado bibliotecas extraordinarias: "The Long Room" en el Trinity College en Dublín donde está el "Book of Kells" (los Evangelios ilustrados por monjes celtas); la Biblioteca Apostólica del Vaticano; las de Filosofía y Teología del monasterio Strahov en Praga; la del British Museum donde Karl Marx escribió "Das Kapital" y Mario Vargas Llosa varias novelas; la Bibliotheque Mazarine del Instituto de Francia en Paris (Quai Conti); y las ruinas de esa joya de la Antigüedad que fue la Biblioteca de Celsus en Efeso. Muchas veces he trabajado en Washington en la Biblioteca del Congreso de EE.UU., la mayor del mundo, y en Nueva York en la bellísima Public Library de la Quinta Avenida con la calle 42 (a una cuadra del original "Library Hotel").BOLÍVAR, SIMÓN. Uno de mis descubrimientos en esta década recorriendo, estudiando y amando las Américas, es que "el peso de Bolívar" es tan fuerte en América Latina como el "peso de Jefferson" en Estados Unidos. Sólo que en direcciones opuestas. Y un descubrimiento literario es su texto "Mi delirio sobre el Chimborazo".C​CÁMARA DE LOS COMUNES. Cuando recibí esta invitación el 27 de marzo de 1996 a testificar en la venerable House of Commons del Reino Unido, temí por un instante que tendría que colocarme una de esas horrendas pelucas que vemos en los magníficos films de la BBC. Thanks God, no era requisito. Lo notable es que la invitación la enviaba el destacado MP laborista Frank Field, Chairman del Comité de Seguridad Social. Acepté de inmediato, viajé a Londres, y el 20 de Mayo testifiqué y contesté preguntas en una sesión muy interesante, como lo demuestra esta transcripción de la sesión (Minutes of Evidence). El MP de extrema izquierda Jeremy Corbyn, que recuerdo con chaqueta verde brillante y barba desordenada, intentó, con varias preguntas cargadas, llevar el debate al tema político y se encontró de frente con la verdad histórica. Incapaz de refutarla con hechos y argumentos, se mostró confundido y finalmente se levantó en medio de la sesión y abandonó la sala ante el estupor de sus colegas y el público en las tribunas. Con Frank Field establecimos una excelente relación personal e intelectual, encabezó después la visita del Comité (sin Jeremy) a Chile para ver el sistema de capitalización en terreno, aceptó participar en un Panel conmigo en una Conferencia Mundial sobre Pensiones que organizó el Cato Institute en Londres, y al día siguiente de ser nombrado subsecretario en el gobierno de Blair en mayo de 1997, me invitó a una sesión de trabajo mientras tomábamos desayuno en el Royal Horseguards Hotel en que me hospedaba. ​CASA DIVIDIDA. Este libro fue escrito con un espíritu de amistad cívica con todos y enemistad con ninguno. Quise llegar a las reales causas de la ruptura de 1973 en Chile, para que nunca más se inicie el camino de la violencia política en nuestro país. Sólo así se asegura que nunca más se quebrará la democracia y se abrirán profundas heridas entre chilenos.​CASCABEL AL GATO. Aquí, en 19 idiomas, un extracto de mi libro "El Cascabel al Gato" (1991):  [Español][Inglés][Francés][Alemán][Italiano][Holandés][Danés][Polaco] [Rumano][Búlgaro][Húngaro][Serbio][Turco][Armenio][Hebreo][Persa][Coreano][Chino][Portugués]​COLOMBIA. En 1993 se creó el sistema de capitalización en Colombia. La Ley 100 fue firmada por el presidente César Gaviria. En este artículo el entonces ministro Juan Manuel Santos, relata nuestra colaboración para crear este sistema. El entonces senador Alvaro Uribe era el jefe de la comisión relevante del Congreso y, en mi oficina en Santiago, me reuní con él y sus colegas para explicarles los fundamentos y la transición hacia un sistema de capitalización. Es notable que los tres líderes políticos claves en la creación del sistema de capitalización hayan ocupado la Presidencia de Colombia.​CONFERENCIA DEL 7%. El 19 de mayo de 1977, en la reunión anual de la Fundación Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la Universidad Católica, postulé que Chile podía crecer al 7%, duplicando así su tasa histórica, si llevaba a cabo una batería de profundas reformas estructurales ancladas en la libertad ("las siete modernizaciones"). Al día siguiente se me pidió que repitiera esta conferencia frente al Presidente Pinochet, la Junta de Gobierno, y el gabinete entero de ministros y subsecretarios. Creo que esa Conferencia gatilló el ofrecimiento del presidente, un año y medio después, de asumir como ministro de Estado en la cartera de Economía. Antes de jurar ese cargo, le sugerí que mejor asumiera como ministro del Trabajo y Previsión Social para realizar desde ahí las grandes reformas estructurales.CH​CHINA. Desde que Deng Tsiaoping inició su revolución económica, me ha interesado mucho este país-continente de milenaria cultura. Aquí mi columna en la revista Ercilla de Marzo de 1978, en la cual avizoraba la gran importancia que tendría esta nueva China para el nuevo Chile.​CHURCHILL. Tengo una enorme admiración por Winston Churchill, como persona y como estadista. He leído todos sus libros, gozado sus discursos, y visitado su casa en Chartwell. El 9 de Abril de 1963 John F. Kennedy lo declaró ciudadano honorario de EE.UU. y estas fueron sus palabras. D​​​DECLARACIÓN DE INDEPENDENCIA. La Declaración de Independencia de los Estados Unidos es la "partida de nacimiento" de la epopeya de los EE.UU. Una década más tarde, James Madison tradujo estos principios en una Constitución que ha sido el otro pilar fundamental de la exitosa experiencia de ese país. El concepto clave que afirma la Declaración es que los hombres son libres, y que constituyen Gobiernos entre ellos sólo para proteger mejor sus derechos a la "vida, la libertad y la búsqueda de la felicidad". Considero a la Declaración de Independencia de los EE.UU. como el documento político más importante en la historia de la humanidad por cuanto ella proclama, de manera extraordinariamente lúcida, principios universales. E​ESLOVAQUIA. Recibo una carta del Ministro del Trabajo anunciándome que se aprobó el sistema de capitalización en ese país, sumándose así Eslovaquia a los países que han seguido el modelo chileno.  ESTADO DOCENTE. Notable afirmación de la profesora, y Premio Nobel de Literatura, Gabriela Mistral.​EURO. En la Conferencia Monetaria del Cato Institute sobre "El Futuro del Euro", que inauguró Alan Greenspan, sostuve que la mayor amenaza para la moneda común europea es la bomba de tiempo de los sistemas de pensiones bismarckianos. El Mercurio informó sobre esta conferencia que tuvo lugar en Washington y publicó este extracto de mi presentación. F​FELLINI. Admiro al director de “La Strada” y descubrí esta conmovedora carta que refleja su “imago mundi” y nos descubre el alma del notable cineasta italiano.FRIEDMAN, MILTON. Cuando tenía 18 años leí su libro "Capitalismo y Libertad". Me impresionaron especialmente el Capítulo I en el cual argumenta que para que exista libertad política es fundamental la libertad económica, y el Capítulo XI en el cual postulaba que el "Social Security”, el programa norteamericano de pensiones estatales, era "una invasión a gran escala a la vida personal de una gran parte de la población". Lo conocí en 1995 cuando me invito a conversar en su departamento en San Francisco. Estuvimos juntos en muchos eventos del Cato Institute, y hasta viajamos en una gran limusina negra con su esposa Rose, desde San Francisco hasta San José, donde me presentó ante un grupo de empresarios destacados de Silicon Valley. Lo vi por última vez mientras era homenajeado en la Casa Blanca el 9 de mayo de 2002 en un evento apropiadamente llamado “Una vida de logros: Milton Friedman a los 90”. En un homenaje en Nueva York al año de su muerte, el Manhattan Institute y el Wall Street Journal me invitaron a realizar una breve presentación sobre su legado internacional.​G​GUTENBERG PROJECT. En la TV francesa me encuentro con una maravillosa versión fílmica de la última novela de Tolstoy, "Resurrección". Filmada en dos ciudades que me han sido cercanas últimamente, San Petersburgo y Bratislava, la novela describe la caída de la bellísima Katiusha Maslova tras ser seducida en su juventud por el Príncipe Nekhludoff, su posterior injusto encarcelamiento y envío a Siberia, y la desesperada búsqueda de redención del arrepentido príncipe. Aunque sin la tensión dramática de la "La Guerra y la Paz" y "Anna Karenina", esta obra describe con descarnado rigor las luces y sombras de la sociedad rusa del siglo 19. Al concluir el film, sentí la compulsión de releer algunos capítulos de la novela. Recordé el "Proyecto Gutenberg", esa iniciativa benefactora que pretende tener todos los libros que han existido y que existirán en una versión electrónica accesible, sin costo, en la Internet. Allí estaba "Resurrección". H HAVEL, VACLAV. Me confieso culpable de haber sido impaciente en más ocasiones de las que quisiera recordar. Hace algún tiempo descubrí esta maravillosa reflexión del intelectual y estadista checo Vaclav Havel sobre "La Espera", que me emocionó por su humanidad y sabiduría. HAYEK, FRIEDRICH. Durante mis años en la Universidad de Harvard (1970-74) descubrí a Friedrich A. Hayek, quizás el más profundo pensador del liberalismo clásico en el siglo XX, y tuve un curso con su colega Gottfried Haberler. Desde entonce admiré su obra, me inspiró para la Conferencia de 1977, y tuve el honor de compartir ideas con él, como Ministro de Chile, durante su visita a Santiago en 1981 con ocasión de la reunión de la Mont Pelerin Society. Recuerdo que le impresionó mucho nuestra reforma pionera del sistema de pensiones. El 10 de marzo del 2004 se cumplieron 60 años desde la publicación de su famoso libro "Camino de Servidumbre", cuyo mensaje es tan relevante hoy como lo fue en 1944, como lo demuestra este ensayo.​HOLOCAUSTO. Siempre me ha conmovido profundamente la tragedia histórica de los judíos. En este texto el gran Papa Juan Pablo II habla sobre el Holocausto.​HUIDOBRO, VICENTE. Un gran poeta chileno que escribió, allá en 1925, un apasionado manifiesto contra la mediocridad de la política nacional titulado "Balance Patriótico". ​J​JEFFERSON, THOMAS. El autor de la Declaración de Independencia de Estados Unidos, y dos veces Presidente, comprendió que, para que una república sobreviva y prospere, se requieren líderes políticos de verdad. Esta es una de dos grandes verdades que descubrió el sabio de Monticello: "Cada vez que un hombre coloca un ojo deseoso en un cargo público, una podredumbre comienza en su conducta".M​MEMORANDUM MATTHEI A THATCHER. Aquí está el texto en inglés y en español del que llamaré "El Memorandum Matthei a Thatcher". Este hasta ahora desconocido y notable Memorandum lo escribió el 25 de Marzo de 1999 el General Fernando Matthei Aubel, ex Comandante en Jefe de la Fuerza Aérea chilena y ex miembro de la Junta de Gobierno, para conocimiento y uso de la Sra Margaret Thatcher, ex Primera Ministra del Reino Unido. Supe por primera vez de este memorandum al leer la columna de Robin Harris, actual jefe del gabinete privado de la Sra Thatcher, en el Daily Telegraph del 13.12.06 titulada "Thatcher always honoured Britain's debt to Pinochet". Reconociendo su importancia histórica, decidí contactar al historiador y hombre público, cuyos notables libros sobre Talleyrand y Dubrovnik había leído, y le pedí el texto completo. Convinimos una cena en el Castillo Neuwaldegg en Viena, sede de la Iniciativa Educacional para Europa Central y del Este, en cuyo Consejo Asesor participo. Harris me entregó allí una copia del original del Memorandum, sujeto a reserva por parte de la Sra Thatcher. También me explicó el contexto del memorandum (en 1999 el general Pinochet era, de hecho, un preso político del gobierno laborista británico) y me confirmó la enorme gratitud de la Sra Thatcher hacia Chile. Al leer hoy 24.11.09 la entrevista de la revista argentina "Perfil" al General Basilio Lami Dozo, ex miembro de la Junta Militar que inició la guerra de las Malvinas, en la cual el ex jefe de la Fuerza Aérea argentina confiesa que Chile habría sido atacado después si tenían éxito en las Malvinas, consideré importante dar a conocer este Memorandum, pues refleja la seriedad, prudencia y visión con la que actuó el gobierno militar en ese dificilísimo momento. Cabe recordar que derrotado Galtieri, cayó su gobierno, se evitó una horrenda guerra vecinal, y dos años después se firmó el Tratado de Paz y Amistad de 1984 entre Chile y Argentina. Por eso, me comuniqué hoy con el General Fernando Matthei, con quién había hablado por última vez cuando en 1990 lo visité para regalarle mi libro "La Revolución Laboral en Chile", y me autorizó para publicar su Memorandum, originalmente escrito en inglés, en mi sitio web. La traducción es nuestra.MEMORIA A DOS VOCES. En este libro el ex presidente de Francia, Francois Mitterrand, conversa con el escritor Elie Wiesel, Premio Nobel de la Paz. Comparto con ustedes algunos trozos que anoté para relectura. También me emociona el Sermón de la Montaña, me indigna la humillación, me aterra el poder, y hace poco sentí, yendo de Mimizan-sur-plage a Arcachon, el mismo sentimiento de liberación que describe Mitterand ante una bandada de gansos salvajes que volaban casi rozando las enormes dunas de las Landes.​MILAGRO CHILENO. "Chile es un gran éxito. El mundo llegará a reconocer la recuperación de Chile como uno de los grandes milagros económicos de nuestro tiempo" (Friedrich Hayek, citado en la biografía de Alan Ebenstein, 1981).​MIRANDA, FRANCISCO. El “Precursor” de los movimientos de independencia en la América Latina del siglo XIX fue un hombre renacentista. Quizá un Jefferson latinoamericano. En este texto, "Miranda y sus Bibliotecas", se comprueba que conoció y gozó bibliotecas notables en sus viajes por la Europa de fines del siglo XVIII.​MODELO ECONÓMICO. Una vez maduro y en un buen contexto internacional, el llamado "modelo económico chileno" produjo diez años consecutivos de crecimiento a la espectacular tasa promedio anual de 7,9% (1987-96). Como consecuencia, el número de hogares en la pobreza se redujo a la mitad al finalizar ese período.​MODELO DE PENSIONES QUE FUNCIONA. Notable artículo del gran economista norteamericano Richard Rahn.N​NERUDA, PABLO. Anécdota sobre mi brevísima carrera como "Postino de Neruda", viajando desde Nueva York catorce horas en avión con un gigantesco libro para entregarlo al poeta en Isla Negra.​​O​OBISPOS Y POLÍTICA. Aquí nuestra declaración pública ("Ante un deber de conciencia", también llamada "La Declaración de los Ocho", publicada en El Mercurio el 15 de Diciembre, de 1978), en la cual defendemos el derecho moral de los católicos a apoyar la construcción del modelo económico de libre mercado y el proyecto de redemocratización desde adentro.P PADRES FUNDADORES DE EE.UU. Aquí está mi conferencia inaugural del 2010 en la Universidad Francisco Marrroquín sobre las "lecciones" que le darían hoy los PF a los políticos, desde ya a los latinoamericanos y quizá a los de EEUU también.​PAZ EN AMÉRICA LATINA. La voluntad de paz --y la capacidad de construirla con tratados y no cañones-- es una nueva "ventaja comparativa" de América Latina.​​PERFILES AMERICANOS. "Brochazos" de personalidades con las que compartí cuatro intensos días en el encuentro anual del think-tank "Empower America" en Aspen, Colorado.​PERÚ 2010 y 2025. En septiembre de 1995, le pedí a mi amigo Felipe Ortíz de Zevallos, presidente de la consultora peruana Apoyo, que soñara con lo que podría llegar a ser Perú el año 2010. De inmediato me envió estas proféticas "Notas de mi diario", fechadas, en un ejercicio de economía-ficción, 5 años después, el 15 de septiembre del 2010. Al iniciar la Quinta Epoca de la revista Economía y Sociedad, nuevamente le pedí un ejercicio similar y en noviembre del 2016 escribió estas “Notas de mi diario” fechadas el 2025. PERÚ-CHILE. Notable observación editorial del diario Expreso de Lima, hecha en 1997:"El Perú, donde se originó la civilización en América del Sur, centro del Incanato y del Virreinato español, fue liberado de la Colonia por dos corrientes: una que vino del norte con Bolívar y otra del sur, con San Martín. A lo largo de la República, esas vertientes se han disputado los designios de nuestra política exterior y nuestra lealtad como nación. Y hay que admitir, hoy, que el Perú no ganó en su acercamiento a la Gran Colombia. Por el contrario, perdió separado, como lo estuvo por los espectros de la Guerra del Pacífico, durante décadas, de una más provechosa relación económica con Chile y Bolivia. Chile es, ahora, el abanderado de la reforma y la modernización en toda la región, mientras nuestros socios del norte se hunden en el pasado con entusiasmo digno de mejor causa, sin ver claro ni por sus propios y mejor entendidos intereses". PIÑERA, BERNARDINO. Mi querido tío obispo y amigo de toda la vida. Su discurso "Morir con dignidad" refleja toda su sabiduría y profundidad. Su “Homilía en mis bodas de oro sacerdotales” es tan hermosa como conmovedora. Aquí también la extraordinaria presentación que hizo a mi libro “La Revolución Laboral en Chile” y su Carta al Director de Economía y Sociedad. En este carta de 1981 le hice una aclaración sobre como se puede compatibilizar el concepto del "salario justo" de la encíclica Rerum Novarum con la moderna ciencia económica. Aquí está su carta de despedida a Su Santidad JUAN PABLO II al terminar su visita al país en Antofagasta el 6 de abril de 1987. PODER DE LAS IDEAS. "En cierto sentido, todo comenzó en Chile. En los años 70, Chile fue una de las primeras economías del mundo emergente en probar conceptos como la desregulación, la privatización, la liberación de precios y la apertura al exterior. En 1980, Chile privatizó su sistema de pensiones. Muchas de estas ideas se extendieron por América Latina y el resto del mundo. Ellas están detrás de las reformas en el Este de Europa y los países de la ex Unión Soviética...lo que demuestra, otra vez, el tremendo poder de las ideas" (James Flanigan, Los Angeles Times, 5 de Agosto, 1998)."El gobierno norteamericano no puede atribuirse méritos por la extraordinaria y exitosa revolución de libre mercado en Chile. Pero la Universidad de Chicago, que influyó en la educación de la mayoría de los economistas que lideraron estas reformas en Santiago, sí puede. El poder de las ideas es a menudo una fuerza más grande y duradera que el poder de la fuerza bruta" (Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post, 23 de Noviembre, 2004).POETAS Y AEROPUERTOS. Desde hace muchos años, he insistido en proponer que todos los aeropuertos civiles de Chile lleven los nombres de nuestros grandes poetas y poetisas. Podrìa llamarse "Pablo Neruda" al aeropuerto internacional de Santiago, "Gabriela Mistral" el de La Serena, y así con otros destacados poetas fallecidos. ¿Cómo no va a ser hermoso acoger al chileno que regresa, o al extranjero que nos visita, recordándoles de esta manera que a Chile se ingresa mejor desde la poesía? Es extraordinario que Chile tenga dos Premios Nobel, y ambos honrando a poetas. Gabriela Mistral canta a la cordillera, Pablo Neruda al mar. Mistral gustaba de las cumbres, de los niños y de los ángeles. Neruda es el poeta de las lejanías, y más tarde lo fue de los hombres y de las cosas. Son como dos polos de la conciencia chilena: el norte y el sur, el sol y la lluvia, el alma y el cuerpo, el espíritu y la materia.REAGAN, RONALD. Se ha ido quizás el mejor presidente de Estados Unidos en el siglo XX. Comparto con él la fecha más importante de nuestras vidas públicas, el 4 de noviembre de 1980, día en que él fue elegido presidente y en que logré la aprobación del DL 3.500 que creó el sistema de capitalizacion en Chile. Sus cartas reflejan su calidad humana.REBELION DE ATLAS. En 1999 fui invitado a Burlington, Vermont, a dar una conferencia en el Seminario de Verano de los seguidores del pensamiento de Ayn Rand agrupados en The Atlas Society. Se me ocurrió explicarles la Revolución Liberal chilena y sus momentos estelares como lo que podría haber hecho John Galt y su team después de volver de su refugio en las Rockies al EE.UU. destrozado por los colectivistas. En el posterior Q&A decidí hacerles una broma y les dije que lamentaba el error que había cometido Rand en su obra clave "Atlas Shrugged". Hice una pausa para tomar agua mientras sentía la expectación en el auditorium. Les recordé que en el Capítulo V de la III Parte, Rand escribe que en el mismo momento en que el Presidente Ramírez de la República Popular de Chile anuncia al Congreso en Santiago que confiscará D'Anconia Copper se escucha una explosión "en el puerto" que hunde los barcos cargados de cobre de esa empresa y que hace vibrar las ventanas del Parlamento. Pero, continué, el problema es que Santiago no es un puerto, sino que está a 150 kms de Valparaíso que sí lo es. Se produce cierta conmoción en la sala. Entonces les sugiero mi hipótesis acerca de la causa del error. Rand, que nunca visitó Chile, habría buscado la ciudad de Santiago en un mapa de la época y, dada lo extrema angostura de Chile, el punto negro que usualmente aparece al lado de una capital tiene que haber rozado el mar, lo que la hizó incurrir en ese error menor. Sólo un comprensible error cartográfico, concluí para el gran alivio de muchos, no, por cierto, un error intelectual. Aquí el film completo “Atlas Shrugged, Part I” (en inglés).REVOLUCIÓN MUNDIAL DE LAS PENSIONES. Como sostuviera Victor Hugo, nada es más fuerte que el poder de una idea cuyo tiempo ha llegado. La revista The Economist ha afirmado que "La reforma de las pensiones constituye la siguiente gran reforma liberal, fácilmente un cambio tan significativo como la privatización de las empresas de propiedad del estado -también calificada en su tiempo como una utopía. En materia de pensiones, América Latina ha abierto el camino. Que el mundo lo siga".​RUSIA 2000. En abril del 2000 fui invitado por una semana a Moscú por Andrés Illarionov, principal asesor económico del entonces Presidente electo Vladimir Putin. Rusia estaba en medio de una crisis económica fenomenal, con cesación de pagos de su deuda externa y una fuerte recesión. También fue invitado esa misma semana el ex Ministro de Economía de Nueva Zelandia, el laborista Roger Douglas, que fue el responsable de la exitosa transformación económica de libre mercado de ese país. Juntos tuvimos múltiples reuniones y dimos varias conferencias. Mi conclusión fue que si se adoptaba un conjunto de políticas publicas liberales y coherentes, Rusia podía despegar en poco tiempo. Al regresar a Nueva York explique, ante una escéptica concurrencia, esta visión optimista en un seminario del Cato Institute en Nueva York. Poco después la revista Foreign Affairs me pidió un ensayo sobre mi visita, que publicó en su edición de Octubre-Noviembre del 2000 bajo el titulo "A Chilean Model for Russia".RUSIA 2004. Nuestro Cato Institute organizó una conferencia en Moscú y otra en San Petersburgo. En Moscú planteé que este es un momento estelar para crear en Rusia un sistema de pensiones de capitalización individual como el chileno, y en San Petersburgo extraí las lecciones para Rusia de la ruta hacia el desarrollo y la sociedad libre recorrida por Chile en las décadas del 70 y 80. Tuve la oportunidad de realizar un "brainstorming" de cuatro horas con el presidente Putin, junto con otros reformadores mundiales, como lo relata este artículo de portada del diario independiente de Rusia, The Moscow Times. S SADAT, ANWAR. Como Ministro de Estado, tuve el honor de presidir la delegación chilena a su extraordinario funeral en El Cairo. Aqui un recuento de la gira que incluyó ese funeral: Cuatro capitales y un funeral.SENTIDO COMÚN. Del sentido común económico, por William Boetcker ("Ten Cannots, 1916):- No se puede producir riqueza descorazonando al ahorro.- No se puede fortalecer al débil debilitando al fuerte.- No se puede ayudar al asalariado empobreciendo al empresario.- No se puede fomentar la hermandad incitando al odio de clases.- No se puede favorecer al pobre destruyendo al rico.- No se pueden solucionar los problemas económicos si se gasta más de lo que se tiene.- No se puede crear personalidad y coraje quitando a los hombres la iniciativa y la independencia.- No se puede generar seguridad estable con dinero prestado.- No se puede formar el carácter y el valor del hombre quitándole su independencia (libertad) e iniciativa.- No se puede ayudar permanentemente a los hombres haciendo por ellos lo que ellos deben hacer por sí mismos.​

2025. Panel Distinguished Senior Fellows, Cato Institute, United States2024. The Bratislava Freedom Award, Institute of Freedom and Entrepreneurship, Slovakia2016. Premio Sociedad Civil, CIVISMO, España2013. Premio Manuel Ayau, Students for Liberty, Guatemala2009. Adam Smith Award, Association of Private Enterprise Education, United States2007. Golden Umbrella Award for Best Contribution to Free Market Thinking, Stockholm Network, United Kingdom2006. Liberální institut Annual Award, Prague, Czech Republic2005. Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala2002. Champion of Liberty Award, Goldwater Institute, United States2000. Insurance Hall of Fame, International Insurance Society, United States1999. Founders Gold Medal, International Insurance Society, United States1996. Liberty Award for Opportunity, Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity, United States1991. Sir Anthony Fisher Award,Pacific Research Institute,United States1983. Premio Sociedad Nacional de Minería, Chile