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First, the teacher presented his book The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism in Spanish. The English version was published in 1973, and thanks to the activity of the Editorial Innisfree we can enjoy it now  in that language.

The author also took the opportunity to explain his vision of “market failure”. Drawing on numerous examples and illustrators, Friedman argued that this concept would be related to the markets if not rational actions of individuals which he could produce an irrational result for the set of individuals.

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The first point that Mr Yu Yuantang talked about was the economic reform discussed at the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Among the proposed options, they concluded that it was better to opt for a market economy model, rather than a model with greater government control. According to Yu Yuantang, China needs a change, since the current exports-based economic system is not sustainable in the long term.

Focusing on trade with Europe, Yu Yuantang discussed the drop in exports to Europe and the drop of European investment in China. According to Yu Yuantang, this situation is not due to lower competitiveness of Chinese products, but rising protectionism in Europe. Yu Yuantang confirmed that they would be holding talks to reach an agreement that will help market liberalization for the benefit of all.

He also mentioned that the new model aims to promote Chinese investment not only in coastal areas of China, as has happened in the past, but also to promote the economy of central and western China. This change is mainly due to the change of the Chinese middle class, increasingly entrepreneurial and slowly returning to non-industrial areas

The Rafael del Pino Foundation in collaboration with the Everis Foundation organized the presentation of the report “Pacto por el Talento” on November 28th.

Transforma Talento’s mission is to analyze the ociety and the talent market inSpain. It begins with a deep reflection about how to raise the comprehensive development model and talent management. Its objectives are to conceive and design this common dream and to draw the roadmap in order to make it a reality. In particular, to address the educational system but not with the intention of limiting themselves to only that aspect, since many are the topics that impact and influence how they want to design it: science and research, innovation, entrepreneurship, business, the socio-political, government administrations and the connection between the company and the talent market are also topics they want to address and treat as a whole.

They want to meet this challenge through the Transforma Talento community involvement, while working on ideas, suggestions and experiences of all. (Retrieved from http://www.transformatalento.es)

The presentation of the report was provided by D. Marc Alba (Coordinator of the report) and afterwards there was a debate in which participated: D. Pedro Aranzadi Elejabeitia (General Director of Portal Universia), D. José dela Peña Aznar(Director of Educación y Conocimiento en Red), D. Enrique Sanchez Leon (Director General of APD) and Segovia Nieves Bonet (CEO of Global Education Forum)

Here you can find the video presentation:

This is the link to the report in pdf format:

http://www.transformatalento.es/index1/images/documentos/res_eje_web.pdf

The Rafael del Pino Foundation in collaboration with the Diego de Covarrubias Centre has organized the Cycle of Christianity and Liberalism. Within these series of lectures, on November 27^th, the cycle had the pleasure of welcoming Professor Jay Richards and his presentation on the “Popular Myths About The Economy.”

The professor Jay Richards is a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute where he directs the Center on Wealth, Poverty and Morality and is a visiting professor at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics. Recently he has published with James Robinson the bestseller “Indivisible: Resotring Faith, Family and Freedom Before It’s Too Late”.

Professor Richards began stating firsthand the difficulty of finding the moral aspects of the economy. Moreover, from his Christian perspective many ethical questions emerge. This reflection led him to explain 4 of the 8 myths that appear in his book: “Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem”.

From the Professor Richard’s point of view, most people ignore the less favourable consequences of their own choices. This is what Richards defined as the “piety myth”. This idea is reflected in a very clear example: the closure of a factory employing minors inThailandmay seem an action on behalf of human rights for the West, but is not necessarily so good for these children, because if they were not working at the factory they would be living on the street or embed in prostitution. So we must not only follow our moral concerns, but its consequences in the long run.

Many thinkers have defended throughout history that the main problem of capitalism is greed. This would be Jay Richards’ second myth. As Ayn Rand argues, selfishness can be a virtue, it moves the society forward. The mere self-interest that one can have does not imply being selfish, is what we know and what we are responsible for.

The third myth is the idea of zero-sum game. There are not always a loser and a winner, nor is everything always black or white. There are different situations in which you can be more or less benefited; the important thing is that after playing you are aware of whether it was worth participating.

Finally, the myth of materialism, wealth is not created, transformed. People can not create it, we can just turn matter into resources.

The Rafael del Pino Alumni Association had the pleasure to organize on Tuesday November 27th, with the support of the Rafael del Pino Foundation, a lunch-colloquium with Mr. Javier Andrés Marín, founder and CEO of the start-up technology company Ticketea. During the event, Javier shared with the guests his experience as entrepreneur. The event attendees appreciated his young and successful career, his passion and his perseverance in carrying out his

Biography of Javier Andrés Marínproject. View full profile below.

Javier Andrés Marín is the founder and “Chief Ticketer” of Ticketea.com, pioneer Social Ticketing Platform inSpainrecently owned by Atrápalo.com.

Javier holds a degree in Business Administration and Management at ICADE (Madrid) and Tulane University (USA). He has done a Master in Digital Business conducted by the Instituto de Empresa inMadrid.

Born in La Rioja, Javier has over a 5 years experience in strategic consulting at multinationals like KPMG or AT.Kearney. During the last years he has focused on the new challenges of online communication and has worked in positions of Business Development in Communication Agencies as BBDO or Havas Media.

During his professional experience, Javier has worked extensively in applied innovation projects and has worked for clients such as Telefonica, Terra, Guggenheim Bilbao or Santander, or Inditex. His infatigable curiosity and his passion for innovation have enabled him to write opinion articles in Spanish newspapers as Expansion, 5 Días or El Economista.

First, it was an honor to be invited to an event at the residence of the General Consul as an intern, and therefore on behalf of the Foundation. The event took place on the first snow day inNew Yorkthis winter, which created an even more special environment.

It was a pleasure to meet and talk with the General Consul and his team, as well as with Mr. Angel Martin Acebes. I was able to have an individual conversation with the General Consul, and we exchanged views on how important it is to make sure that we implement all the actions agreed that afternoon (networking events, discussion forums, cultural activities, etc.) We should also introduce them to our nearest community in New York (in my case, Columbia University), so that they perceive that the attitude of the Spanish professionals in the current economic situation of our country is not passive but active, and that we are willing to work together and share ideas to return to the path of development and economic prosperity. Indeed, I told the General Consul that during the previous week I had informed my MBA fellows that I was going to attend the reception, and they were surprised by the level of interaction and coordination that we have.

I also had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Angel Martin Acebes. Apart from sharing with him my “frustration” about the little Spanish wine that can be found in the U.S., we discussed more formally the possibility of a visit to the Commercial Office, and a following round table where we could share opinions on how to contribute to the continued expansion of Spanish companies across the United States. Additionally, he offered us his assistance to get in touch with Spanish companies that we might wish to contact, which I think can be very interesting in the future.

For most of the event, we talked informally with other scholars. I think that this kind of informal networking event is one of the keys to achieve the objectives we all share in order to return to Spain and to our Foundations the great opportunity that they have given us so that we could continue our studies in New York. It is a concept often used by Americans and that we, Spanish, should adopt: “give back”.

I hope that the groups created in social and professional networks and the mailing lists that were agreed to be formed allow us to be in touch in the future and to be able to implement all the ideas and initiatives that emerged in this event. In particular, I found very interesting the initiative of combining the talent of technical students (researchers, etc.) and MBA students in order to develop new ideas and business projects.

A group of 60 fellows from different foundations (La Caixa, Fulbright, Caja Madrid, Ramón Areces, Rafael del Pino and Barrie de la Maza) met the 7^th November inNew York with the General Consul, D. Juan Ramon Martinez Salazar, at his residence. It was a special event because it was the first time that the fellows of the most prestigious scholarship programs inSpain studying inNew York, met to share ideas and experiences.

Scholars who attended the event are studying Masters, doctorates and post-doctorates at the highest academic level in universities likeColumbia,CityUniversityor NYU in fields such as law, cinema, art history, economics, international relations, business administration, music, biology, engineering and architecture, among others.

The fellows of the Foundation Rafael del Pino who attended are: Carneros Almudena Ruiz (LLM at NYU), Married Vanessa Perez (PhD at NYU), Borja Echániz Guisasola (MBA atColumbia), Carlos Jimenez-Poyato Fisch (MBA atColumbia) Marta Morales Sola (MBA atColumbia), Gonzalo Sanchez-Arjona Voser (MBA atColumbia) andJorgeVilariñoValley(MBA atColumbia).

The Cultural Consul, D. Iñigo Ramirez de Haro, the Head of the Commercial Office, Mr. Angel Martin Acebes, the Deputy Consul, Mrs. Maria de los Reyes and Fernandez Jesus Alvarez, Teaching Technical Advisor, also attended the event

The promoter of the initiative, Lila Pla Alemany, a Master student in Business Administration and Management atColumbiaBusinessSchooland a fellow of ‘La Caixa’,said: “There are two things that Americans do better than us, ‘networking’ and leveraging diversity. Students in theU.S.are much more accustomed to using their networks of personal and professional contacts and to work in multidisciplinary teams. The idea of this meeting is just to improve in those two areas and provide fellows and alumni who live in NY the opportunity to build networks and meet and interact with students from other disciplines.”

Thus, apart from sharing wine, Spanish omelette and lomo, scholars concluded that they wanted to be better connected, both socially and professionally. They decided to create Facebook and Linkedin groups ‘Fellows and Former Fellows in NY’ and organize another event in the spring to meet alumni still living in New York.

The students agreed on their willingness to contribute to finding solutions to the crisis inSpain. They also shared their sense of responsibility for having the privilege, thanks to a scholarship, of studying in some of the best universities in the world.

He began by explaining that although the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, supports the existence of an improvement in the economic situation of the Union members, the link between the three crises (public and private debt, banking and macroeconomic) would increase considerably. This would be especially true inGreece,Ireland,Portugal,CyprusandSpain.

According to Professor Donges, inSpainthe problem is that we are repeating the mistakes of the former Socialist government. The IMF’s deficit forecast is three times worse than the data provided by the current Spanish government. There would therefore be a structural problem that has not been corrected yet.

Thus, for Professor Donges, difficulties exist for entrepreneurial activity and, consequently, we suffer from a lack of productivity and competitiveness. A priori, the solution to these shortcomings could seem to be an expensive process for society. However, examples such asGermany,Finlandor theNetherlandswould be useful to show that the biggest cost incurred could be recovered through innovation in products and processes as well as internationalization.

Professor Donges also shared with the audience his thoughts about the expansion of the current systemic crisis of confidence, which would not only be among Spanish citizens but is happening throughout the totality of theUnion. He presented the example of German citizens, who do not consider themselves to be responsible for market losses and, therefore, find no justification to assume the losses generated in the southern countries. Donges said that the latter would be in a position of receiving help from richer countries without having to take the necessary adjustment measures.

Professor Donges said that the creation of a European banking supervisor, which is currently working, would not be feasible as a solution because no country wants to lose sovereignty. The criticisms of Professor reached the ECB, because, in his view, it would start to look more and more like a state funding agency, something that is prohibited in principle and is also counterproductive to improving the economy.

Finally, Professor Donges reflected the need to solve the economic problems at their roots instead of trying to solve them with “patches”. Otherwise, the European situation may not improve; the euro zone would be governed by soft standards, high inflation and a devaluation of the euro. According to Donges, we should recover theMaastrichtspirit, which would lead us to greater stability and sustainable livelihoods in which governments would use policies of macroeconomic stability and microeconomic deficiency. This would take more responsibility. It will be a long process, but we should not get discouraged.

In conclusion, there would not be a “magic wand” to help us overcome the crisis. Governments should take the lead in economic growth and focus on investment rather than consumption. Perhaps it was for this reason that Professor Donges closed the ceremony with a quote from Victor Hugo: “The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is opportunity.”