The Economist Gabriel Oddone presented “El Despegue”, the book he wrote with the journalist Nicholas Battle and which offers a look at economic, social and even political issues, although the author clarifies that it does not seek to be a “manual” and much less a “programmatic proposal for government.”
The main hall of the complex AlfaBeta was absolutely packed. The first rows marked in some way the photograph of the new stage that Oddone is going through, very close to being proposed by the candidate of the Broad Front Yamandú Orsi as a member of the economic team of his eventual government. In fact, Orsi himself was in the front seats, very close to the economist Pablo Ferreri, whose name is also used for this team.
Special guests were also: Enrique Iglesias, former president of IDB and former Ibero-American general secretary; and the political consultant Mario Riorda, in charge of the entire electoral strategy of the FA candidacy.
Odone explained in dialogue with Ambit What led him to propose this book at this point in his professional life: “It is about putting in order a set of reflections that I have written over the last 20 years. They deal with the challenges that Uruguay has for the long term, the basis is to maintain the growth and the income. There are no concrete proposals, there are issues and challenges that Uruguay has ahead of it. It has no pretension other than to influence the public discussion”, he explained.
Asked how he thinks this proposed idea of growing and at the same time distributing better is achieved, the economist responded that “first by generating better contact between the world of innovation, science and technology with the business world. In Uruguay We have a great divorce between the processes of innovation, generation of knowledge and the business world. That is changing in the world of biotechnology, in the world of IT, but we have to extend to other activities in the country. That is a crucial issue. The second thing is, we have to strengthen and substantially improve the level of education in our population for reasons of growth and for reasons of improving people’s security and giving them more access to work and more access to the level of innovation. And we have to reform the whole set of things Uruguay that are obsolete, that are old, to release energy that is now accumulated in places where it is not worth going. And that means a complex political process that you can’t do everything at once, that you have to do it in stages, But the public sector, the health sector, the transport sector, the food distribution sector, are places where we have to get involved more and more,” he said.
Odone did not avoid talking about the debate on whether it is necessary to create new taxes to collect more or it is possible not to increase them, as the governing coalition has introduced into the debate in this electoral period.
“Uruguay has a tax pressure “The current rate of inflation is high and therefore there is not much room to increase taxes and I am not in favour of starting by increasing taxes. Now, promising the population that under no circumstances, under no circumstances that the country will face, will there be a need to resort to tax increases, is irresponsible. Why? Because if one has to end up doing so, as a result of a situation that arises, one will have broken a promise. In other words, one cannot promise things that are not under one’s control,” said Odonne, “getting involved” little by little in the political debate, while his name is being considered as a possible Minister of Economy of a future Frente Amplio government.
In this regard, the economist also did not avoid answering about this possibility, without going into details but leaving what seems to be an “open door” to that scenario: “I have done professionally in a way that I never thought I would do and I owe that to Uruguay. So, in a certain sense, I have a debt to society and therefore, I have an infinite desire to try to do what I have always said I had to do. Then, how it goes is the result of chance, luck or success. But I am sure I have the desire,” he replied.
Inflation and childhood policies
“Uruguay reached a level of inflation lowest in the last 40 years. That is a great success, a great achievement. And even though that was due to the generation of a distortion of the exchange ratethe solution to the price problem in Uruguay It is not about trying to depreciate currencies further. We have to work and think hard about how to consolidate a level of inertia in price formation that is different from what we have had until now. That is a chapter of labor reforms and a chapter on reform to the training of prices in the public sector and also in the private sector,” says Oddone on this point, which is one of the most notable in the book he presented in co-authorship with journalist Nicolás Batalla.
On the subject of the childhood policiesthe economist aligned himself with some of the ideas that the Frente Amplio deputy has expressed in this regard Cristina Lusterberg, who has submitted a bill to the Parliament which has received several endorsements.
“We need to strengthen and reformulate our model of coexistence in terms of social protection. If we do not grow at a rate of 3% per year, we cannot afford the model of coexistence that we have. That requires introducing reforms. In other words, we cannot expect that every X number of years an external shock will boost us or we cannot expect that, by continuing to do the same in terms of public policies, that will happen.
“The link is between income level and the number of poor children there are. That is what is unusual about Uruguay. That is, for the level of income that the country has, the number of poor children is extremely high. Basically what we have in Uruguay The fact is that the homes where these children live are homes that are really headed by women, with great difficulties in entering the labour market because the care system does not work and because spatial and labour segregation for women continues to be significant with a low level of training, therefore it is not a unique and fantastic tool, we must work in many dimensions but we must put the focus on the children, on the homes where these children live and that means strengthening the transfer system, improving access to employment with training for people who are heads of their households, giving them better levels of education, many, of course, creating a sustainable care system “For these people to be able to move, that requires a lot of resources and moving them from other places where they are being spent today,” Oddone analyzed.
Will he be a minister?
“If they propose it to me and there is a consensus on what needs to be done, between what he intends and what can be done, I would be Yamandú’s minister, a person whom I appreciate very much,” was Odone’s concrete response when asked by the press about his possible role as head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
Candidate Yamandú Orsi was in the same vein but a little less direct: “Gabriel is a permanent person for consultation, as are other colleagues. We will see in the coming months if we announce part of the team. It would be a luxury to have someone like Gabriel.”
The blank page and the prologue that was not
The book has a blank page on its first pages, which draws attention and is a particularly symbolic fact for the authors.
The coordinator of the think tank Agora (chaired by Oddone) Victoria Gadea He explained at the event that the initial idea was that the former Minister of Economy Danilo Astori to write the prologue for the book. After a “yes” that was not easy to obtain, Gadea explained that the writing and editing work was prolonged simultaneously with the worsening of the Frente Amplio leader’s health problems, which meant that there was not enough time for him to complete the text before his death.
Source: Ambito
