A tango tale: on the closure of the Argentine fully funded system

With an early welfare system, Argentina’s demography is more similar to the South European countries than to the majority of Latin American ones. The country reformed its old fashioned Pay-As-You-Go system in the 1990s, introducing a Fully Funded scheme, which was intended to solve the financial stress of the social security, as well as to yield positive externalities on the financial system, the savings rate and economic growth. After 15 years of functioning, the system was closed, their affiliates sent to Pay-As-You-Go again, and the accumulated savings went to the public social security administration, which is in charge of future benefits. The official explanation for such an ending was that the international financial crisis was a peril for future pensioners, and also that the (private) pension funds administrators were not the proper managers of the funds. In the Congress, the political majorities for this reform were remarkable strong in both chambers. Protests of the saving accounts owners were not loud, in a country with a tradition of mass demonstrations. How it happened? Why? Did pension fund administrators work properly for their affiliates, given the constraints they faced? Can we learn some lessons, relevant to other countries with similar characteristics (i.e., Latin American, Eastern European or Central Asian), besides the uniqueness of the local circumstances? We think so, and we worked on developing the lessons of this experience. We debate on the process and we asked if it could occur in some other place. We conclude that it can, since weak political consensus on the reform is built. It also could happen when the objectives and the instruments are not properly differentiated. Are we in search of fixing the social security or of promoting national savings? Also, the marketing and the counter marketing of the reform could polarize the debate, and to difficult the per se complex consensus. Finally, the counter reform has unexpected pay- offs, since making implicit the public debt due to the social security system, and the sudden disposal of a source of resources to finance the State budget increases the appeal of eliminating the Fully Funded scheme. The long run responses of the ageing process and the short run political horizon add up to the counter reform coalition.Pension Funds; Argentina; Reform; Portfolio regulation

Políticas de la teoría: práctica teórica y práctica política en Louis Althusser

El presente artículo tiene por objetivo problematizar la relación entre teoría y práctica política en la obra de Althusser. Asimismo, la relación entre teoría y política está íntimamente ligada al problema de la totalidad social. Es decir, para Althusser hay una relación estrecha entre el modo de concebir las prácticas y la conceptualización de la estructura social. Para ello, nos detendremos en la crítica que Althusser realizara a Hegel, puesto que condensa muchos de estos problemas. La totalidad hegeliana reduce todas las determinaciones y prácticas de la vida social al concepto produciendo de ese modo una “indistinción” entre las prácticas, en la medida en que todas ellas no son sino una manifestación del concepto. Frente a esta indistinción idealista, Althusser va a señalar la necesidad de pensar la articulación de prácticas singulares a la luz de lo que el llamará un “todo complejo y sobredeterminado”. En efecto, es a través del concepto de sobredeterminación que buscaremos pensar la primacía de la práctica política sobre la teoría. Intentaremos demostrar que esa primacía no supone un “salto a la política”, entendiendo por ello un desentendimiento de los problemas teóricos, ahora si resueltos a partir de su reducción a los conflictos políticos, sino que alude a una articulación diferencial que exige modos complejos del conocer.Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Socia

Propuesta de un material didáctico para la enseñanza aprendizaje de polinomios para población con limitación visual

En el presente artículo se dará a conocer una propuesta de un material didáctico que permita a estudiantes invidente, trabajar el concepto de polinomios dentro de un aula regular, esto con el propósito de abordar las necesidades que tienen los estudiantes invidentes en el aula regular, cuando trabaja con el área de matemáticas, específicamente con el álgebra

Políticas de la teoría: práctica teórica y práctica política en Louis Althusser

El presente artículo tiene por objetivo problematizar la relación entre teoría y práctica política en la obra de Althusser. Asimismo, la relación entre teoría y política está íntimamente ligada al problema de la totalidad social. Es decir, para Althusser hay una relación estrecha entre el modo de concebir las prácticas y la conceptualización de la estructura social. Para ello, nos detendremos en la crítica que Althusser realizara a Hegel, puesto que condensa muchos de estos problemas. La totalidad hegeliana reduce todas las determinaciones y prácticas de la vida social al concepto produciendo de ese modo una “indistinción” entre las prácticas, en la medida en que todas ellas no son sino una manifestación del concepto. Frente a esta indistinción idealista, Althusser va a señalar la necesidad de pensar la articulación de prácticas singulares a la luz de lo que el llamará un “todo complejo y sobredeterminado”. En efecto, es a través del concepto de sobredeterminación que buscaremos pensar la primacía de la práctica política sobre la teoría. Intentaremos demostrar que esa primacía no supone un “salto a la política”, entendiendo por ello un desentendimiento de los problemas teóricos, ahora si resueltos a partir de su reducción a los conflictos políticos, sino que alude a una articulación diferencial que exige modos complejos del conocer.Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Socia

A tango tale: on the closure of the Argentine fully funded system

With an early welfare system, Argentina’s demography is more similar to the South European countries than to the majority of Latin American ones. The country reformed its old fashioned Pay-As-You-Go system in the 1990s, introducing a Fully Funded scheme, which was intended to solve the financial stress of the social security, as well as to yield positive externalities on the financial system, the savings rate and economic growth. After 15 years of functioning, the system was closed, their affiliates sent to Pay-As-You-Go again, and the accumulated savings went to the public social security administration, which is in charge of future benefits. The official explanation for such an ending was that the international financial crisis was a peril for future pensioners, and also that the (private) pension funds administrators were not the proper managers of the funds. In the Congress, the political majorities for this reform were remarkable strong in both chambers. Protests of the saving accounts owners were not loud, in a country with a tradition of mass demonstrations. How it happened? Why? Did pension fund administrators work properly for their affiliates, given the constraints they faced? Can we learn some lessons, relevant to other countries with similar characteristics (i.e., Latin American, Eastern European or Central Asian), besides the uniqueness of the local circumstances? We think so, and we worked on developing the lessons of this experience. We debate on the process and we asked if it could occur in some other place. We conclude that it can, since weak political consensus on the reform is built. It also could happen when the objectives and the instruments are not properly differentiated. Are we in search of fixing the social security or of promoting national savings? Also, the marketing and the counter marketing of the reform could polarize the debate, and to difficult the per se complex consensus. Finally, the counter reform has unexpected pay- offs, since making implicit the public debt due to the social security system, and the sudden disposal of a source of resources to finance the State budget increases the appeal of eliminating the Fully Funded scheme. The long run responses of the ageing process and the short run political horizon add up to the counter reform coalition

Políticas de la teoría: práctica teórica y práctica política en Louis Althusser

El presente artículo tiene por objetivo problematizar la relación entre teoría y práctica política en la obra de Althusser. Asimismo, la relación entre teoría y política está íntimamente ligada al problema de la totalidad social. Es decir, para Althusser hay una relación estrecha entre el modo de concebir las prácticas y la conceptualización de la estructura social. Para ello, nos detendremos en la crítica que Althusser realizara a Hegel, puesto que condensa muchos de estos problemas. La totalidad hegeliana reduce todas las determinaciones y prácticas de la vida social al concepto produciendo de ese modo una “indistinción” entre las prácticas, en la medida en que todas ellas no son sino una manifestación del concepto. Frente a esta indistinción idealista, Althusser va a señalar la necesidad de pensar la articulación de prácticas singulares a la luz de lo que el llamará un “todo complejo y sobredeterminado”. En efecto, es a través del concepto de sobredeterminación que buscaremos pensar la primacía de la práctica política sobre la teoría. Intentaremos demostrar que esa primacía no supone un “salto a la política”, entendiendo por ello un desentendimiento de los problemas teóricos, ahora si resueltos a partir de su reducción a los conflictos políticos, sino que alude a una articulación diferencial que exige modos complejos del conocer.Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Socia

La recepción del pensamiento luliano en la península ibérica hasta el siglo XIX. Un intento de síntesis

En el contexto de la universal e impresionante difusión de la obra y el pensamiento lulianos se pretende aquí ofrecer una síntesis de ese proceso en el marco geográfico y político de la Península Ibérica, en donde la recepción de Ramon Llull adquiere diferencias y caracteres peculiares. Empezando por los inicios del lulismo en Mallorca se apuntan los datos de la primera escuela lulista en Valencia y un inquisidor que la persigue, continuando con la más conocida y formada escuela luliana de Barcelona y su irradiación en la Península, Baleares e Italia. Después de una breve nota sobre la relación del lulismo hispánico con el activo movimiento lulista de París, en los albores de la modernidad, se enumeran los focos de lulismo en la Castilla medieval para pasar a su período más floreciente en la corte de los Reyes Católicos y Felipe II. Con una reseña sobre el lulismo portugués y la posible influencia del lulismo en la evangelización americana termina este sintético panorama.We intend to offer a synthesis of the universal and impressive dissemination of Lull’s work and thought within the geographical and political context of the Iberian Peninsula where their reception shows specific features. We first inform of the beginnings of Lullism on Mallorca, then we give some facts about the first Lullian School in Valencia and about an inquisitor prosecuting it, and we explain the better known and more developed Lullian School of Barcelona and its spreading to the Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and Italy. After writing a short notice about the relation between the Spanish Lullism and the active Lullian movement in Paris in the early modern times, we enumerate the centers of Lullism in medieval Castile and we describe its blossoming time at the courts of the Catholic Kings and Philip II. Our synthesis ends with a review of the Portuguese Lullism as well as of the possible influence of Lullism on the American evangelization

Evaluación del funcionamiento de un Sistema Biológico-físico-químico (BFQ) para el tratamiento

Acid mine drainages (AMD) are nowadays a very serious environmental problem caused by all the mine activities. These drains are characterized for having a high content of dissolved heavy metals, sulphate ions and acid pH which have negative consequences not only in human health but also in many ecosystems in which they are discharged. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the operation of a physical-chemical-biological (PQB) system to decontaminate the AMD using sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) that produce biogenic sulphur to precipitate heavy metals into metal sulphurs. A bioreactor packed with SRB was used; it was fed with 3000 mg sulphate L-1 and 2500 mg acetate L-1 as the electron donor and was stabilized until obtaining sulphur concentrations of approximately 130 mg L-1. A physical-chemical reactor was connected in series to the bioreactor and had as a second affluent a synthetic DAM composed by 30 mg L-1 copper (II) and a pH of 2.7.Los drenajes ácidos de mina (DAM) constituyen hoy en día un problema ambiental muy serio producto de todas las actividades mineras. Dichos drenajes se caracterizan por tener un alto contenido de metales pesados disueltos, iones sulfato y pH ácido lo cual tiene implicaciones serias no sólo en la salud humana sino también en los diversos ecosistemas en los cuales los DAM son descargados. El objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar el funcionamiento de un sistema biológico-físico-químico para descontaminar los DAM mediante la utilización de bacterias sulfato-reductoras (BSR) que producen sulfuro biogénico para precipitar los metales pesados en forma de sulfuros metálicos

A tango tale: on the closure of the Argentine fully funded system

With an early welfare system, Argentina’s demography is more similar to the South European countries than to the majority of Latin American ones. The country reformed its old fashioned Pay-As-You-Go system in the 1990s, introducing a Fully Funded scheme, which was intended to solve the financial stress of the social security, as well as to yield positive externalities on the financial system, the savings rate and economic growth. After 15 years of functioning, the system was closed, their affiliates sent to Pay-As-You-Go again, and the accumulated savings went to the public social security administration, which is in charge of future benefits. The official explanation for such an ending was that the international financial crisis was a peril for future pensioners, and also that the (private) pension funds administrators were not the proper managers of the funds. In the Congress, the political majorities for this reform were remarkable strong in both chambers. Protests of the saving accounts owners were not loud, in a country with a tradition of mass demonstrations. How it happened? Why? Did pension fund administrators work properly for their affiliates, given the constraints they faced? Can we learn some lessons, relevant to other countries with similar characteristics (i.e., Latin American, Eastern European or Central Asian), besides the uniqueness of the local circumstances? We think so, and we worked on developing the lessons of this experience. We debate on the process and we asked if it could occur in some other place. We conclude that it can, since weak political consensus on the reform is built. It also could happen when the objectives and the instruments are not properly differentiated. Are we in search of fixing the social security or of promoting national savings? Also, the marketing and the counter marketing of the reform could polarize the debate, and to difficult the per se complex consensus. Finally, the counter reform has unexpected pay- offs, since making implicit the public debt due to the social security system, and the sudden disposal of a source of resources to finance the State budget increases the appeal of eliminating the Fully Funded scheme. The long run responses of the ageing process and the short run political horizon add up to the counter reform coalition