Whatever you do today do not miss the front page piece in the Times on Chile’s disastrous experience with privatization. The case for the program is so strong it seems that José Piñera, the labor and social security minister under Pinochet, who ushered in the program, refused to even discuss it with the Times.
That despite the fact that he’s had a sinecure at Cato for years as their big phase-out macher. He’s the Co-Chair of their Project on Social Security Privatization Choice.
Perhaps the most telling line in the whole piece: “Among other achievements emphasized here by advocates of the privatized funds are the creation of a modern capital market, cheaper credit for companies that formerly could turn only to banks when they wanted to expand, and a brake on deficit spending by the government.”
And which of those things has anything to do with retirement security exactly?