Privatizing Russia's Pensions

Annotation
Perhaps more than any other structural market reform unfolding today in Russia, pension privatization epitomizes both the enormous progress achieved over the past decade and the equally huge obstacles still ahead on the road to "civilized" liberal capitalism. The reform highlights and tests the quality of key institutions and instruments central to such a system: transparency and liquidity of banks and mutual funds, probity and competence of state regulatory agencies, and stability of equity and bond markets. Still, the reform's most significant consequence might be strengthening the Russian people's trust in the market's ability to replace and outperform the state in controlling vital assets and delivering benefits. Next to the availability of food, pension privatization may become the most direct demonstration of the benefits of capitalism to tens of millions of ordinary Russians.