Milei Is Absolutely Killing It in Argentina

[Geee]

PJ Media

President Javier Milei entered office like Jack Nicholson breaking his way into the bathroom in "The Shining" — with an axe. Armed with emergency powers granted by the Argentine Congress, he balanced the country's out-of-control budget in one month, fired government workers by the thousands, eliminated more than 200,000 "corrupt" social welfare programs, and even cozied up to NATO.

 

There’s a lot more chainsaw" to come, Milei promised in March, and I momentarily almost became gay.

The usual fearmongers mongered the usual fears.

A few weeks ago, the New York Times ran an opinion piece — complete with a demonic-looking, high-contrast black-and-white photo of Milei — by Argentine author Uki Goñi. According to him, Milei is the "product of a long South American history in which authoritarianism has been the norm and democracy the exception." Of course, Goñi also called Milei "a far-right libertarian," and if you can square "authoritarian" with "libertarian," then cut back on the day-drinking.

Victor Swezey warned in December that "victims of Argentina’s dictatorship see [a] step backward in Milei’s presidency."

And the Columbia Journalism Review's Jon Allsop got his panties particularly twisted over concerns about Milei's "particular hostility toward public media," and the private media, too. But when a conservative or libertarian shows any level of hostility toward the media, he's merely returning the favor.

[Geee]

Argentina's Javier Milei Is Proving the Leftists Wrong With Latest Economic News

Argentina’s Javier Milei was considered a lunatic and a threat to democracy. The people didn’t care. With inflation soaring through the roof at 300 percent and over 40 percent of the population in poverty, the Argentina electorate saw what leftist economic policy had yielded. They elected Milei, a Trump-like candidate who wielded chainsaws at political rallies, to right the ship. And he’s succeeding in that endeavor. Inflation has dropped to 11 percent, and the country posted its first modest surplus since 2008 (via The Telegraph😞

 

" First, what’s changed in the country: inflation has fallen to 11pc and Milei predicts it will fall further. While a monthly figure (this is Argentina after all), price rises may be coming back under control after soaring above 300pc annually. 

Last week, Milei announced that the country had recorded its first quarterly budget surplus since 2008, a modest 0.2pc of GDP, but still an astonishing achievement in such a short space of time, especially for a country that has run deficits for 113 of the last 123 years. 

Then, earlier this week, the central bank, which Milei has not yet gotten around to abolishing as he pledged, cut interest rates for the third time in three weeks. While they are still at an eye-watering 50pc, that will start to feed through into the economy very soon. Investors have started to notice. 

According to Bloomberg data, in the blue-chip swap market the peso was the best-performing currency in the world in the first quarter of this year, and the bond markets are rallying as well. 

[…] 

So how is he en route to deliver such a massive shock to the stale economic orthodoxy? Fundamentally, he got three big calls right. 

First, even without a majority in parliament, he has been ruthless. Whole government departments have been closed down overnight, regardless of the immediate consequences. The Ministry of Culture was axed, so was the anti-discrimination agency, and the state-owned news service. Only last month, he unveiled plans to fire another 70,000 state employees. "

Milei hasn’t attempted to cut gradually, to control budgets, or to ease people out with early retirement, or hiring freezes. Instead, he has, as promised, taken a ‘chainsaw’ to the machinery of the state, yielding huge savings in the process. 

Next, he has been bold. The president massively devalued the peso on day one, taking the financial hit upfront, and then tore up rent controls, price restrictions and state subsidies. He pared back workers’ rights, reducing maternity leave and severance compensation, and allowed companies to fire workers who went on strike. 

[Valin]

@Geee

He's A Fascist  you know. 

[Geee]

6 hours ago, Valin said:

@Geee

He's A Fascist  you know. 

Aren't we all 

[Valin]

1 hour ago, Geee said:

Aren't we all 

Ja, wohl!