No Third Way Out

Creating A Capitalist Czechoslovakia

John Fund from the June 1990 issue

(Page 4 of 4)

Reason: Were you active from the beginning?

Klaus: Oh, yes. I worked with Havel for 20 hours a day. I spoke at the main rallies. I was on the strategy committee for Civic Forum.

Reason: Offering economic advice?

Klaus: No, political advice. 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.

Reason: How did you become finance minister?

Klaus: I wanted instead to be head of the state bank, but I was told there was no one else who could do the job of finance minister. There is, sadly, a real shortage of human capital in the country. I have to both run the Finance Ministry now and also serve as the ministry's chief economist. It is an impossible situation.

Reason: What are your chances of remaining as finance minister or holding another post in government?

Klaus: I never intended to be a politician or office-seeker. But the Civic Forum has put me in a very visible position, and I expect that I will be in the parliament after the June elections. Whether I will be in my current job, I cannot say.