02/07/2011
Manuel Pizarro: “The PP will have to undertake to continue the history of Spain, and when this happens, the greatest task won’t be the economy, or meeting Maastricht’s criteria, nor cutting costs below our competitors’: from day one the greatest challenge will be to rebuild the institutions of an exhausted country”
“The four basic principles of market economy are globalisation, competition (not only businesses and individuals compete, also legal systems and, in Spain, Autonomous Communities do too) and the free flow of information, as what is bought and sold in markets is information. When there’s privileged information, prices are not appropriate and competition doesn’t work”
“In a market that has globalisation, competition, flow of information and where prices are appropriately fixed, the essential element is freedom. Without freedom there’s no justice, no market can work properly and there’s no society of opportunities”
“The worst thing a market economy can have is inequality because it entails a restrictive practice of competition. If there’s no freedom the flow of information in the market as a whole will not flow correctly and resources won’t be efficiently allocated”
“If there’s no exemplarity in public behaviour, that is, rewarding the person who does things right and punishing the person who does things wrong, no system can properly work. The financial crisis that we are enduring is the consequence of a moral crisis, a crisis of principles. The ones in control have not worked properly, institutions have failed, and shareholders and clients have not exerted the necessary control. Transparency and responsibility are the keys of market economy”
“The greatest challenge of Spain is re-knitting institutions. The first thing is reforming the financial system so that money can flow: this reform has not been done wrong because it has actually not been done at all. The next thing is reforming energy: a country without energy cannot work and the inefficiency of the system has made Spain pay a 10-20% more than the rest. Furthermore, if the National Energy Committee doesn’t work properly and laws are made to favour only some, the energy system will be damaged further. Lastly, Spain has a serious problem of institutional inflation. At the top of it all is justice: a country where, depending on the court you end up in, you already know the decision it will submit, is a country where justice doesn’t work, especially if they take 15 years to solve disputes”
“Those regions with a higher rate of economic freedom, register more economic prosperity and per capita income: this has a direct impact on living and welfare standards. This doesn’t happen when agreements are made with some regions as it distorts free competition among them, creating inequalities”
“Education is the future. Freedom has to be introduced in education: we are educating with public money and this means that resources must go to those who do things right and cease going to those who do things wrong. We will thus improve the quality of our education system. We must also redesign the Welfare State by introducing efficiency criteria: the challenge we have before us is adjusting decimals of efficiency to earn decimals of freedom”