Radical libertarian Javier Milei elected president of Argentina
Decisive victory over economy minister Sergio Massa pulls crisis-hit country’s politics to the right
Javier Milei, a radical libertarian economist and first-term congressman, has secured a decisive victory in Argentina’s presidential elections, defeating economy minister Sergio Massa and pulling the country’s politics far to the right amid its worst crisis in two decades.
With 93.4 per cent of votes counted, Milei had won 55.8 per cent, against 44.2 per cent for Massa, according to the electoral commission. . . .
Milei’s campaign centred on a pledge to take a “chainsaw” to the state — slashing spending by up to 15 per cent of gross domestic product — and to dollarise the economy to stamp out inflation. Argentina’s annual price rises hit 142.7 per cent in October.
Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist”, has stirred controversy throughout the campaign, expressing support for ideas such as legalising the sale of human organs and eliminating all gun laws.
He also referred to China, Argentina’s largest trading partner, as “murderous”, the Argentine Pope Francis as “a filthy leftist”, and climate change as “a socialist hoax”.
However, Milei has walked back several of those statements in an effort to win over centrist voters in the weeks following October’s first round vote. . . .
WSJ pulls no punches in describing the dire economic situation Argentina faces
. . . Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who became known to millions through TikTok and YouTube but had no entrenched movement of his own, will have to rely on a coalition with centrist and conservative political factions who would likely moderate his more radical proposals.
“He’s going to need the help,” said Marcelo Gioffre, a 63-year-old author and lawyer here who writes a well-read political column. “Of course it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s the only way to move the country forward. . . .
Among the most daunting challenges for Milei when he takes office on Dec. 10 will be trying to narrow a gaping budget deficit and sort out about $41 billion in unpaid import bills left by the unpopular and free-spending government led by Fernández and his vice president, Cristina Kirchner.
Inflation is running at 143%, more than 40% of the population is living in poverty, and factories have been forced to halt production because of a shortage of dollars to pay for imports. Argentina’s crisis is considered by economists to be the worst since a $100 billion debt default in 2001 that led to a revolving door for five presidents in two weeks and riots that resulted in more than 30 deaths.
The Argentine peso has lost some 90% of its value against the dollar on the black market, its collapse leaving many Argentines struggling to get by on earnings of about $200 to $300 a month.
"Our fundamental axes are free trade, peace, freedom, and aligning ourselves with the west. Where the highest references in this for us are the United States and Israel.
“I would not promote relations with communists, nor with Cuba, nor with Venezuela, nor with North Korea nor with China”. - Javier Milei
Seems the man has a better morale compass with regards to communists than the west does. Our governor’s clean the streets for them in San Francisco while they have operating concentration camps and forced child and slave labor. Good show.
Context:
China is the biggest trade partner with almost every country in the world.
And he did not say he would cut them off or boycott them or whatever, just 'Not promote." “I would not promote relations with communists, nor with Cuba, nor with Venezuela, nor with North Korea nor with China”. - Javier Milei
But if hyperinflation is not all that rare, how does it end?
Well I familiar with only one case of hyperinflation ending, that of Germany. between the wars. By 1922 Germany faced 700% inflation and as Encyclopedia Britannica puts it “By November 1923 one U.S. dollar was equivalent to 1,000 billion (a trillion) marks. A wheelbarrow full of money couldn’t buy a newspaper.”
According to Gustavo Franco (Harvard PhD who later became head of Brazil’s central bank): Germany finally ended hyperinflation in 1923 by denominating most contracts in commodities, (gold, wheat & coal, etc.)
