Argentine President Javier Milei had to resort to the financial bailout from the U.S. Treasury, yet he has boasted of having the public accounts of his country in order and under control.
The reality was very different.
Without the lifeline that Scott Homer Bessent brought to him, the Argentine government would have irreversibly defaulted.
A little over a month ago, on Aug. 21, the libertarian economist and engineer Saifedean Ammous — financial adviser to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele — published on the website of the Ron Paul Institute a criticism of the economic and financial policy that Argentine President Javier Gerardo Milei has carried out since the beginning of his administration.
This criticism demystifies the aura of liberal and libertarian that the Argentine president puts forth, by describing him — among other things — as an “inflationary populist,” but one not especially loyal to the ideas and principles of a libertarian doctrine.
But already earlier this year Dr. Ammous had shown in a post published on X (Twitter) that one of the slogans most vociferated by the Argentine president – the non-issuance of money from his presidency (Dec. 10, 2023) — left much to be desired in terms of accuracy.
As Ammous showed, Argentina’s money supply in 2024 – the first year of Milei’s government – increased enormously:
M0 (Monetary base (physical currency (banknotes and coins) + bank accounts deposited with the Central Bank)): 209%
M1 (M0 + M0 + deposits in cta. cte): 133%
M2 (M1 + savings accounts, market economy accounts, and certificate of deposit accounts. Under US$100,000): 93%
M3 (M2 + all other types of certificates of deposit, foreign currency deposits): 123%
The serious thing that the author of the post highlighted is that the Argentine president purportedly issued much more money in just one year than the reviled government which preceded him. Yet the “libertarian leader” Milei, characterizes as the cause of all the ills that today affect the majority of Argentina, such issuance of money.
But in the four-year period 2020-2023 of the Kirchner government, Argentina’s monetary issuance had grown at a much lower annual rate than the current government’s monetary issuance, composed of:
M0: 50%
M1: 77%
M2: 90%
M3: 86%
As the figures clearly and indubitably show, Milei’s supposed non-issuing libertarian government issued 200/300% in one year compared to what the “populist” pro-(Cristina Elisabet Fernández de) Kirchnerist government issued in four years.
However, even with more issuance, the current government drastically reduced investment in public works, state salaries and pensions, health, education, etc.
Milei’s economic and social policy also led to the loss of 184,000 jobs and a 32% increase in the value of real wages.
Additonally (on top of what could be called the lie of non-monetary issuance) Dr. Ammous critically noted: that in the first six months of the Argentine anarcho-libertarian government “the public debt increased by 19.4%,” going from a total of 370,000 to 442,000 million dollars, with which President Milei ended up contradicting himself, since one of his stated positions is that borrowing is the most illiberal thing which exists, because the resultant debt is loaded on the backs of future generations who did not contract with and from which they will not benefit.
In this sense, the author stated at the beginning of the year, “those of us who thought that the situation was impossible to worsen should reconsider,” since “Milei fully adopted the same statist rhetoric that governments always use to justify inflation.”
Specifically, by increasing monetary issuance instead of reducing or controlling it and by increasing foreign debt, what President Milei has done is to sow the seeds of monetary crises in Argentina’s future.
We are witness to this today.
That’s why, says Ammous, “for all his libertarian and free-market rhetoric, Milei is an old-school Latin American populist inflationist, who “buys short-term popularity with inflation and long-term debt.”
In short, the author of the article concludes, the alleged anarcho-capitalist libertarian Milei is in reality a statist producer of inflation and indebtedness, a coarse populist ruler who is so criticized by the Argentine president and serious and coherent liberals.
In short, the argumement may be made, that President Javier Milei is seemingly not all he seems.
It’s well known that President Trump and Treasury Secretary Bessent have come to the aid of President Milei with support rarely seen for a foreign leader.
Are they not taking a great risk, with an uncertain outcome and incalculable dire consequences? God willing, let’s hope not.
The prospects aren’t at all promising.
José A. Quarracino, is a philosopher, author of “Geopolítica y Aborto” (Buenos Aires, 2018). He’s a former university professor, translator, and columnist for Stilum Curiae (Italy), columnist for Gloria.tv. Professor Quarracino is also a lecturer and anti-abortion political activist. Additionally, he has been a translator of books and homilies of St. John Paul II and Cardinal/Pope Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI.
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