Leszek Balcerowicz Receives Milton Friedman Prize
Cato Podcast
Cato Institute
4.5 • 979 Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2014
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From September 1989 to August 1991, Leszek Balcerowicz served as deputy prime minister and finance minister in Tadeusz Mazowiecki's administration, which was Eastern Europe's first noncommunist government since the end of World War II. He held those positions again from October 1997 to June 2000.
He was chief architect of the Balcerowicz Plan, a radical reform program that helped transform the Polish economy in the 1990s. He liberalized the prices of most consumer goods and initiated sound fiscal and monetary measures designed to balance the budget and end hyperinflation.
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, May 23rd, 2014. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Caleb Brown. |
| 0:07.0 | At the end of the Cold War and Soviet domination, |
| 0:10.0 | while shortages in hyper-inflation were ravaging Poland's economy, |
| 0:14.0 | economist Leschik Bolsorovich was given an enormous task |
| 0:17.8 | to shift the economy away from socialism to free markets. |
| 0:21.6 | On Wednesday, |
| 0:22.5 | Balserovitch received the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty |
| 0:26.4 | from the Cato Institute. These are his remarks Wednesday night |
| 0:29.9 | at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. |
| 0:33.2 | As we all know, Newton Friedman was a great scholar |
| 0:37.5 | and a great communicator in a service |
| 0:41.0 | of what works best in society, |
| 0:46.8 | individual liberty, free markets, |
| 0:50.9 | and the rule of law. |
| 0:53.0 | Therefore I am very, very grateful Garris Kaspers of speech. |
| 1:10.0 | As everybody knows, Gary combines an enormous intellect and a great |
| 1:18.8 | college which has been showing in opposing the Putin's regime in Russia. |
| 1:26.0 | I fully share what Garret has said about Russians invasion into Ukraine, I would only stress that this is an aggression of a non-democratic |
| 1:39.6 | state against still Democratic Ukraine. |
| 1:43.0 | Agrat. |
| 1:50.0 | Aggression which pays encourages further aggression. |
... |
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