By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market.
Vaclav Klaus
2
I also helped write the five-page statement of principles that Civic Forum issued in late November. That was the first public expression of what the new government wanted to do.
Vaclav Klaus
3
I had been in Austria that day, giving lectures attacking government economic policy. You see, the regime already could not control its critics.
Vaclav Klaus
4
I never intended to be a politician or office-seeker.
Vaclav Klaus
5
I was 25 years old and pursuing my doctorate in economics when I was allowed to spend six months of postgraduate studies in Naples, Italy.
Vaclav Klaus
6
I was paid to read Western economic texts. In a way, the regime paid for their own undermining.
Vaclav Klaus
7
It is what makes the reform process an art, not just a science. You have to develop a strategy that tells you what reform measures you should follow and in what sequence.
Vaclav Klaus
8
That means following a very restrictive fiscal and monetary policy which will squeeze the monopolies and cut their subsidies. On the micro level we will allow other economic agents, both domestic and foreign, to compete with them.
Vaclav Klaus
9
The events in the square, of course, made a deep impression on me and many other parents.
Vaclav Klaus
10
Then in 1969, I spent the spring term at Cornell University in New York. The invasion of August 1968 had already happened, but the hardline regime took several months to crack down on dissidents.
Vaclav Klaus
11
This week, we created a Board for the Temporary Administration of State Property that will look into selling government-owned assets.
Vaclav Klaus
12
To talk about planning an economic system is to talk in old terms, and I find myself sometimes having to teach Westers about what the market really means.
Vaclav Klaus
13
We must have the time to create strict rules so that property is not sold by Communist managers for a low price. They often get payments under the table to sell to the first bidder. This does not build public support for a market economy.
Vaclav Klaus
14
We served on the editorial board of a literary monthly called Face in 1968 and 1969. He was a young writer, and I was also interested in broad cultural issues. We agreed on all major issues and became friends.
Vaclav Klaus
15
We will also allow state companies to sell shares to their workers and will pass a law allowing citizens to start companies of their own with no limits on the number of employees or on the firm's output.
Vaclav Klaus
16
What we want is to establish the rules of a market economy - not to plan its outcome.
Vaclav Klaus
