ニューヨーク市長マイケル·ブルームバーグの面談記事、欧州は強い指導者が必要だ、生産性の向上、財政の均衡,将来への投資、
“Europa necesita liderazgo”
El alcalde de Nueva York subraya la necesidad de líderes fuertes para tomar medidas imprescindibles pero impopulares y la importancia de mantener abierta la puerta a la inmigración
Vea el ESPECIAL EUROPA completo
ENTREVISTA. François Hollande, presidente de Francia
ENTREVISTA. Carlos Slim, magnate mexicano
ENTREVISTA. Guido Mantega, ministro de Hacienda de Brasil
ENTREVISTA. Cui Hongjian, analista chino
TRIBUNA. Desde la otra orilla. E. KRAUZE
M. Calabresi Nueva York 17 OCT 2012 - 13:00 CET
"Europe needs leadership"
The mayor of New York underscores the need for strong leaders to take necessary but unpopular measures and the importance of keeping the door open to immigration
See full EUROPE SPECIAL
INTERVIEW. François Hollande, the French president
INTERVIEW. Carlos Slim, the Mexican magnate
INTERVIEW. Guido Mantega, Brazil's finance minister
INTERVIEW. Cui Hongjian, Chinese analyst
TRIBUNE. From the other side. E. Krauze
M. Calabresi New York 17 OCT 2012 - 13:00 CET
Michael Bloomberg has on his desk a clock that counts the days left in his third term as mayor of New York, and looks every morning: "It's a sign that I say: Make every day count, because you much time left. "
Question. Europe has devoted much time to find the solution to your problem. How important is time to act in a crisis situation?
Response. Well, the first time a problem arises, if one does not fix it, he finds things only get worse. Things do not get better by chance, happen to get worse. So I think that Europe's problems began long ago and should be addressed if any while. That said, all that is history, and you can relive history, we must live in the present: what matters is not what Europe should have done but what you should do today.
"We need more immigrants because they create more jobs and create businesses"
P. What do you think we should do now in Europe?
R. It is not easy to answer, there is none which is painless. I believe that improving productivity, balance the budget, invest for the future, all that must be done. Are measures on which all say: 'Yes, but when things are tough or want to do that, I can not, because people will not agree'. Austerity measures to balance a budget when there is a very high unemployment rate are very difficult to sell, make long-term investments whose benefits will be in five, 10, 20 years, is very difficult to sell, especially if not much money and the governments nor their abundance. Change labor laws and open borders: it is very difficult to convince people of that kind of productivity-enhancing measures when there are so many problems.
P. What is the mistake we should not repeat ever?
the real damage of the mortgage crisis was that its expansion hid a momentous change in the workforce worldwide
R. If you think of the City of New York in the seventies, you will see that stopped investing in the future, no longer patrol the streets, stopped picking up trash, had prevented new ideas, and the city collapsed. The population declined and it took two or three decades out of that situation. It is hoped that we never commit that error. Six years ago, I said, "This can not go well. Revenues are growing, low taxes, investments are generating a huge amount of new revenue, will end sometime. " So aside 6,000 million dollars of taxpayer money, tax revenues, and we expect to when there was a crisis. And of course, the crisis came, as of 2008, and we have used that money, and end up using it next year, but has helped us to overcome a difficult period without interrupting our investments. We put money into a new metro line, which the State did not want to do, we have built a new underwater tunnel, which has taken 50 years to complete because our predecessors always cut the money because they had other things to use it. We fixed all the streets of lower Manhattan and we renovated underground communication lines, water pipes and steam, electricity and sewage, we did things like that to hold the city for long. We have opened tourist offices worldwide, this year we will have 52 million tourists. And that creates many jobs.
P. How many tourists had when you came to office?
R. About half, we have had an increase from about 36 million to about 52, 60%.
P. What is the key to overcome the crisis?
R. Leadership. Europe needs leaders. I do not know how to come out at the end, but one could say that David Cameron is acting as needed, that has real austerity budget, which is not popular in England, in the UK, but is addressing the problems. I do not know if he's right or not, but it is showing the courage to step forward and act. Can you do the same in Spain with the tremendous unemployment rate? Can you do the same in Greece and Italy, where the number of people paying taxes is relatively low? In America, everyone pays their taxes. There may be a handful of people who cheats, but everyone makes his statement, so that, if people are not paying a small percentage, it is easier to apply the law, because chasing is a controllable task. If 90% of people do not pay taxes, where do you start?
P. Where do you start?
R. Christine Lagarde, the IMF managing director, is a man of great weight, but there is a limit to what these supranational organizations can do. At the moment of truth, the governments of various countries have to convince voters get, and it is difficult to stand up and say: We have to make sacrifices. " Everyone wants to fiscal stability, but I do not raise taxes or cut my programs. Very well, responds to the Government, but without it you can not have fiscal stability. The answer I get is: you want to be president or prime minister, discurra way.
P. What do you think of what Italy is doing to solve their problems and reduce the negative impact on Europe?
R. In Italy there has always been joie de vivre. The Italians have optimism that is in their culture. Now, they have a huge amount of economic problems, probably less than Greece and probably less than Spain, and other countries. The bottom line is that they have spent money we do not have and have not invested in things for the future. What is most disturbing here in America is that we have closed our borders and accept fewer immigrants, and at least in New York need more immigrants because they create more jobs and start businesses. I do not know if that's true or not in Italy, but the fact is that there is a wave of anti-immigration throughout Europe, from Ireland to Turkey. Suddenly, local differences are very important. In his day there were discussions about Polish immigration in Europe, but today is that Poland is the continent's economic superpower. You have to bring new blood.
P. The crisis began in the United States with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Do you think that Wall Street has a share of responsibility for the euro crisis?
R. I think I disagree with your premise. In my opinion, Lehman went bankrupt because all people, worldwide, wanted to have a mortgage, everyone wanted his pension fund rise in value, everyone wanted cheap money, and together we created this bubble. It was the people, was the Government, was the private sector, and then everything fell apart. I have 70 years and I have a lifetime waiting for someone to invent the perpetual motion, but never have. All these things happen in cycles, precipitated the crisis and then we recover gradually. Begin to create excesses, the first derivatives are well, the second derivatives are like that, and then the third derivatives are a bad step. In the U.S., the real damage mortgage crisis was that its expansion hid a major change in the workforce worldwide. As everyone was building, we were creating a lot of jobs. When stopped, employment ceased to exist. Then Look at the middle class, what's going on with their jobs? They can not live on what they earn. Some people begin to move up the socioeconomic ladder, have a structured family, a car, a house, which have to be: do not get a job that pays a good salary. They need it, but do not. They do things that are repetitive, which can be automatic and generally do not have to be close to the customer, closer to you so that you can take anywhere in the world where you have lower wages. That's the problem of the middle class.
P. During the current presidential campaign, both candidates have criticized Europe. It seems that Europe has almost become a dirty word in American politics. Is the Atlantic Ocean widened due to the economic crisis?
R. The Atlantic Ocean has always been very wide. I have given this example many times: If you were in Rome, and tried to pay the taxi driver in sterling, the cabbie protest and complain, but it would take a bank, in New York, if you tried to pay in pounds, would take to a police station. I know that on September 11 taught us that the world is smaller, but Europe and the United States remain different. We have a large percentage of members of Congress who do not have passports. Our journalists have never traveled the world, have never been in other cities. They say that the crisis here is immense: a person has to eat the burger without fries, so is poor. Let them go to other countries where people have nothing to eat! United States does not understand. I think you should not worry about the opinions of Europe nor the U.S. views on Europe. Elected officials are held by politicians who want to get elected, so they have to blame someone. We have created a culture where someone is to blame, someone who is not us. So we attack Europe, so we attack China.
P. In a crisis situation, when national and local governments are cutting social benefits, education, helping the poor, can be a solution philanthropy?
R. No, because the amounts of money are very different. What you can do is to fund philanthropy test projects or innovations, or trials, but when it comes to providing services to 6,600 million people worldwide, private philanthropy is so small that it is negligible. You can not use public money for things that can not be guaranteed in advance that they will work. Innovative things you do not know or what they will involve much less whether they will do any good. And that's where philanthropy can intervene. You can do things. I gave $ 50 million to the Sierra Club to help close coal plants. I have spent 600 million dollars in my pocket trying to convince people to stop smoking. The snuff kill 1,000 million people in this century. I invested $ 100 million so far in traffic, which in a few years will be the world's fifth largest murderer. That is, there are things we can do in a particular way, but, broadly speaking, is public money which should be responsible. You can decide whether or not you want to spend and can raise money from the people who have it.
P. Speaking of priorities, can cut into the culture and education?
R. Everything has its value. I manage a budget of 65,000 million dollars and, in recent years, our annual revenues have remained stable, while expenses increase. So I have to find ways to save. I have to keep the streets safe. Why? Because, if the streets are not safe, people will not come to sightsee, will not come to live, and then we have a base of taxpayers. So all the rest of what we will talk soon not be done if we do not start with security. Then you need to have ambulances that come when one suffers a stroke or a heart attack. If the house burns down, you have to have a fire truck that will, among other things. You have to pick up trash, if not, we will look terrible and diseases, and education must be provided. This just gave 80% of the city budget is untouchable. And you have to increase each year, according to most, but I've had to reduce them all, including the police. I deleted 5000 police posts in the last 10 years and the city is safer than ever. That is, we spend less money on these things, but we must find ways to do with less, and the answer is governments always have to spend more money at the problem. But there are two reasons not to. If we spend more money in the first place, we are wasting the taxpayers' money. But above all, the people who benefit from this program does not work loses. When we have a program to educate children that does not work, if we invest more money in it, all you're doing is giving them one more year with a system that we know does not work, and that's the most stupid thing to do . We must also have cultural institutions, which is as we compete with other cities, and we have parks. The answer, therefore, is: do not ever cut or completely eliminate any one thing. You have to set priorities. We spent 8,500 million dollars each year in our police department, 22,000 million dollars in our public school system. I do not know what we spend on cultural issues, but about 200 million, probably. We must choose, but most of the things that makes the city of New York are the things that people want and need. It's my job responsibility to say no. That is leadership.
P. Or company policy: what will be the next adventure of Michael Bloomberg?
R. I have no idea, I really have not thought of. I do not work for any boss for 35 years, so I could not do it now, it's unlikely. I've had the best official position that you can have, I do not have any other office of government that I feel like taking, or may not get that chose me, because there's always someone who does not like my arms policy, the abortion, gay rights. Philanthropy?? I like to create great strategies but after ... Bill Gates is a good friend of mine, working on AIDS issues and has read everything ever written about AIDS. I say we should take care of that, he is an expert on the subject, to be responsible, and I give him money. I do not know, do not know how to answer the question. I'm going to rest a few weeks, I've been 11 years without a vacation. I'd like to tour the Italian coast, I think I could do it for two weeks, but then I do not know what will. I will not teach, I will not be anyone's advisor, I will dedicate myself to investments: not going such activities. I do things.
P. Have not had much success in politics to quit now?
R. Look, no one would like them the old rich. On January 1, 2014, when my term expires, I can give a speech on how to cure cancer, and no one will listen to me. Understand that one ceases to control the scene, no longer going to have access to the press he has now. You step into the real world, and some people find it hard to make that transition. I do not find it difficult, because I do the same thing five minutes after I was fired from Salomon Brothers: I made a conscious decision not to think about it. No re-think. Those people who do not stop chastising: should have done this, should, could. What's the point? I think tomorrow will be better than today, I do not know what it will bring, but you have a very bad life not to take that philosophy. We'll see what happens. If I could learn to speak Spanish, my Italian is a bit better, if I could learn to play golf like a pro, then I do not know what would. If I could do that in two weeks, then would have the same problem. But I do not be in such danger. Good Luck!
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