20% of retirees receive two benefits

2019 budget prohibits the most vulnerable retirees from working to supplement their meagre incomes. If there was an intension to take a first step towards the pension system reform, it would have been more equitable to revise the special regimes and pension rules that allow double coverage. (more…)

9 out of 10 workers in poverty are not unionized

The rapprochement of church leaders to their trade union peers is uphold under the argument that they are united by concerns about the social situation. One tool they could contribute if they want to to reduce poverty is to allow SMEs to move away from centralized collective agreements and move to firm-level negotiations. (more…)

Job destruction can be avoided

One of the most worrying consequences of the crisis is the loss of jobs. There are ways to avoid it. A tool that proved to be highly effective is the one that Germany applied in the 2008 crisis, enabling smaller companies to deviate from the sectorial collective agreements and negotiate with their workers at company level. (more…)

The fiscal deficit equals 42% of people´s money

Fiscal adjustment is not a whim of public officials but an imposition of reality. The systematic lack of austerity in the public sector generates an imbalance that no one is willing to finance. With more agility and strategic sense in the ordering of the public sector, equilibrium can be reached with reduced social costs.

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Poor households suffer more than twice labour inactivity

Besides the economic crisis, poverty roots are structural. One is the high proportion of poor household members that do not work. For this reason, it is key that the federal government concentrates in generating employment instead of squandering public funds in poverty alleviation programs which are a provincial responsibility. (more…)

The State good order is still pending

Argentina’s history is marked by crises originated by a State that systematically spends more than it can afford. In order not to persevere in failure, it is essential to transcend the traditional adjustments by adopting more ambitious and innovative measures in the process of ordering the public sector.

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THE PRIORITY IS TO AGREE WITH GOVERNORS, NOT WITH THE IMF

The dollar reached a value almost equivalent to the one which would arise if all the pesos went to buy dollars. Such an extreme has been reached due to a deep loss of confidence in the fiscal policy. To regain normality, a politically viable strategy to reduce the fiscal deficit must be agreed upon. (more…)

ELECTRONIC MONEY THE BEST ANTIDOTE AGAINST CORRUPTION

Although it demands a complex logistics for its manipulation, cash is a great promoter and facilitator of corruption. Therefore, to induce a massive use of electronic money would be a central step toward decency in Argentina. Not only because corruption would be difficult but also tax evasion. (more…)

THE YOUNG SUFFER 5 TIMES MORE POVERTY THAN THE ELDERLY

The growth of pension spending is the main factor of destabilization of public finances. Trying to lower the fiscal deficit without reforming the rules of the pension system is financially unsustainable and socially unfair because it implies continuing to preserve privileged treatments and double coverage. (more…)