Javier Milei is extremely scary.
That’s what the legacy media have decided: The newly-elected libertarian conservative leader of Argentina is absolutely frightening.
Axios calls him a “far-right economist who’s been compared to former President Trump.” A New York Times headline reads, “Argentina Braces Itself for Its New ’Anarcho-Capitalist’ President,” and calls the election Argentina’s “Donald Trump moment.” The Washington Post asks, “Who is Javier Milei, Argentina’s far-right president elect?” NBC News has called him a “controversial figure, known to his fans as ‘The Crazy’ and ‘The Wig,’ for his larger than life personality and hair.”
This, unsurprisingly, is not the way the press treated the election of former convict and Left-winger Lula de Silva in Brazil. “Brazil Elects Lula, a Leftist Former Leader, in a Rebuke of Bolsonaro,” the New York Times reported last year. At the time, the Washington Post asked, “Who is Lula? What to know about Brazil’s president.”
But Milei, as we’ve said, must be one scary character.
CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE
So, what are his deeply frightening positions? He has called for vast cuts to Argentina’s government — a necessity, since Argentina has defaulted on its debts three times since 2001, has a $43 billion outstanding loan to the International Monetary Fund, and now faces another default. They received a $57 billion bailout just five years ago. Thanks to out-of-control spending, Argentina has had to print pesos hand over fist, which is why, according to the Ministry of the Economy, total money supply in Argentina skyrocketed 30.7% a year from 2007 to 2022. The poverty rate in the country is 40%.
Milei comes into office promising serious cuts. His media appearances may be colorful, but that all serves a purpose: a determination to make massive changes to Argentina’s economic trajectory. Milei has promised to slash and burn his way through government, cutting 11 of 19 departments.
He campaigned with a chainsaw he pledged he would use on the “parasitic state.” He wants to draw closer to the United States and Israel, and away from China.
Milei, in his inaugural address, pledged “radical reform.” That reform includes closing the central bank, the institution printing money hand over fist. Milei recognizes the reality: that inflation has crippled Argentina’s ability to recover, calling pesos “trash” not “even good as manure.”
WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show
All of this should be treated as good news. Argentina’s trajectory has been a total disaster area for decades, despite the glorification of Peronism at the hands of Hollywood. In fact, the markets are treating Milei’s election as they should: Argentine stocks and bonds have jumped on Milei’s election, mainly because he is the first leader of Argentina in generations who has a plan to actually avoid economic default.
Milei’s election should be treated by the United States as the possible opening of a new era in South and Latin America. Along with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a new wave of conservative governance may be building in the Global South. That would be incredible, given the so-called “Pink Wave” that has washed across the continent over the course of the last few years.
CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE
So, why the heartburn?
Because the reality is that there are many in the United States and Europe, particularly on the political Left, who somehow feel more comfortable with the socialist radicalism of Lula De Silva, Gabriel Boric, and even Nicolas Maduro than with anyone who smacks of libertarianism or conservatism. That’s because Argentina is a living example of what happens when corporatism and social democracy are taken to their limits: the substitution of governments for markets, the overregulation of industry in pursuit of social redistributionism, the attempts to create autarky via tariff protections and trade restrictions — the endless populist promise that if all power is given to the government to protect “the people,” all will be well. That promise always results in privation and misallocation, in tyranny and poverty.
Milei’s victory represents that realization. So Leftists label Milei the worst slur they can think of: Trumpian.
Now, the media and the political Left will attempt to shovel all of Argentina’s failures on Milei’s shoulders. Milei still faces a partly-Peronist legislature, as well as a court system stacked in favor of Leftist foolishness — the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Horacio Rosatti recently said that any attempt to dollarize would be unconstitutional.
This means that Milei’s power may be curbed; he still faces entrenched economic problems, including a dearth of valuable currency to move toward dollarization. He will require an infusion of foreign capital in order to right the ship in Argentina — and then, if he comes up short, capitalism and economic liberalism will be blamed for the failures of Peronism.
That’s always the pattern: Corporatists ruin economies, and then capitalism gets the blame.
But Milei can succeed. Investors ought to look South and put their money where their mouth is to ensure that Argentina realizes its potential as a massive source of prosperity, wealth, and power — and that alliance with the United States grows stronger as a result.