Javier Milei's economic program proposes radical free-market reforms, including deregulation, privatization of state-run industries, austerity measures, and dollarization, aiming to address Argentina's economic challenges through shock therapy.

The current annual inflation rate in Argentina is 211 percent.

Javier Milei was inaugurated as Argentina's president on December 10, 2023.

Javier Milei plans to replace the Argentine peso with the US dollar as part of his economic reform agenda.

Javier Milei is a libertarian and self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist, indicating his political ideology aligns with these philosophies.

Javier Milei secured 56% of the vote in the presidential election, winning against Sergio Massa who received 44% of the votes.

Javier Milei is scheduled to be inaugurated as President of Argentina on December 10, 2023.

Approximately 40% of Argentina's population is currently living in poverty.

Argentina is currently facing severe economic challenges, including extremely high inflation rates, a significant debt burden, and impending recession, which are exacerbating poverty and declining living standards.

Javier Milei won the Argentine general election on November 19, 2023.

Javier Milei approved over 300 economic reforms in Argentina.

Argentina's annual inflation rate under President Javier Milei is 254%, according to government data.

Argentina owes the International Monetary Fund $44 billion.

"Javier Milei plans to privatize 12 public enterprises as part of his economic reform agenda in Argentina."

President Javier Milei's economic reform decree includes the removal of rent price caps, aiming to loosen regulations on the rental market.

"Javier Milei's economic reforms include the privatization of state-owned companies and industries."

Javier Milei's economic reforms in Argentina include cutting retirement benefits (pensions) and labor rights as part of his economic emergency plan.

Javier Milei's economic program proposes radical free-market reforms, including deregulation, privatization of state-run industries, austerity measures, and dollarization, aiming to address Argentina's economic challenges through shock therapy.

Title:

Content: Argentine presidential election won by far-right Mireille
Central News Agency
Argentina ’ s far-right liberal economist Mirai was elected the next president of Argentina today, and he loves to talk about conspiracy theories and reckless style, often compared to former US President Donald Trump, and also represents Argentina ’ s choice to “turn right ” in the face of economic crisis.
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The New York Times pointed out that the 53-year-old Javier Milei is an economist and television personality with few political experience.
He touted a subversive approach to reshaping the economy and governance, shaking up traditionally closed Argentine politics.
With 95% of the vote counted, Mirei defeated centre-left rival Sergio Massa with 56% of the vote. The 51-year-old economy minister has already conceded defeat.
During his campaign, Mirei criticized taxes and spending, and proposed radical proposals such as shutting down the central bank and replacing the Argentine currency with the US dollar.
He also intends to ban abortion, loosen gun regulations, and diplomatically only consider dealing with “anti-socialist ” countries, the most common examples of which are the United States and Israel.
Some political analysts believe that Mireille's line reflects a change of heart among Argentines rather than a genuine identification with far-right ideologies.
At present, Argentina ’ s annual inflation has soared 140%, ranking third in the world. More than 2 / 5 of the country ’ s people are living in poverty, and the Argentine peso (peso) value is still falling. When the COVID-19 epidemic began in April 2020, a dollar was worth 80 pesos, but this week it has turned into nearly 1,000 pesos.
Economists and political analysts say Mirei has failed to live up to his political strength and economic conditions, which have been described as "political medicine."
His new Liberal Advances party has only seven seats in the 72-seat Senate and 38 seats in the 257-seat House of Representatives.
Mirei will be sworn in on December 10, the 40th anniversary of the first democratically elected president since the fall of Argentina ’ s military dictatorship.
Argentina today elected Javier Milei as its new president, betting on a radical outsider to fix the economy.
Although the official tally has not yet been announced, Mirei ’ s rival Sergio Massa has already conceded defeat.
Mirei promised shock therapy to save the economy, including shutting down the central bank, abandoning the peso and switching to the dollar as the official currency, and cutting spending.
These painful reforms resonate with angry voters who are struggling with the economy, but they also cause others to worry about austerity.
Cristian, 31, a restaurant worker, said at the vote today: “Mireille is new, a little bit unknown and a little scary, but it ’ s time to turn the page. ”
But Mr Mirei faces enormous challenges, including the prospect of government and central bank vaults running out, the International Monetary Fund ’ s $44 billion debt program, nearly 150% inflation and a series of dizzying capital controls.
Neither candidate fully convinced the Argentines, and some described the election as a “lesser of two evils ” choice: fearful of Mirei ’ s bailout, but more resentful of Masha ’ s ruling party, the Peronist Party, for causing today ’ s economic crisis.
Mireitt is especially popular with young Argentines, who are now growing up watching their country move from one crisis to another.
Agustina Lista, a 22-year-old student from Buenos Aires, said: “Our generation pushed Mireille into the presidency to stop us from becoming a country of untouchables. ”
In addition to reshaping Argentina ’ s political landscape and economic path, Mirei ’ s victory could also impact global trade in cereals, hydrocarbons and lithium battery raw materials.
Mirei has previously attacked China and Brazil, saying that he does not deal with the “Communist Party ” and wants to strengthen relations with the United States.
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The current annual inflation rate in Argentina is 211 percent.

Title:

Content: Argentina’s New Libertarian President, Javier Milei, Is on a Collision Course With His Country’s Powerful Labor Unions

Unions have promised a ‘total strike’ across the country Wednesday to protest Mr. Milei’s efforts to rein in a once-powerful central government and put Argentina on a path to prosperity.

Argentina’s new Libertarian president, Javier Milei, is on a collision course with his country’s powerful labor unions, a conflict that will come to a head Wednesday when the unions have promised a nationwide “total strike” to protest austerity measures enacted by Mr. Milei since he took office last month.

Union leaders speaking to the Financial Times say they expect as many as 200,000 people to take to the streets of Buenos Aires because the new president is “breaking the social contract” by passing an emergency decree that rolled back worker protections, deregulated many industries and began allowing employees to opt out of union-provided health care.

Around 40 percent of the country’s 13 million workers belong to labor unions that have for decades enjoyed considerable political clout under successive governments headed by leaders of the Peronist movement launched by strongman Juan Peron in the 1950s. That power evaporated overnight when Mr. Milei moved into the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s equivalent of the White House, on December 10.

The leader of Argentina’s Construction Workers Union, Gerardo Martínez, told the Financial Times that he hopes the strike —the earliest ever faced by a newly elected president — will force Mr. Milei to roll back some of his reforms and come to the bargaining table with the unions.

“We are aware that inflation [needs to come down.] We are embarrassed to have a country with this level of poverty,” Mr. Martínez said. “But we can’t accept that the cost of reaching economic stability falls solely on the backs of workers and the middle class.”

The tousle-headed Mr. Milei, who famously brandished a chainsaw during the campaign while promising to slash government spending and eliminate entire departments, has made good on some of those promises early in his tenure. He has slashed energy and transport subsidies and sent a bill to Congress that would privatize many of Argentina’s poorly managed state-run enterprises.

Mr. Milei already has backtracked on other issues, however, in an effort to secure the support of moderates in Congress, including taking off the table a plan to privatize the state-run oil giant, YPF.

While perhaps not exactly enamored by some of his fellow countrymen, Mr. Milei has become the darling of international free-marketeers since his full-throated defense of capitalism and the power of entrepreneurship to lift countries out of poverty during the annual World Economic Forum at Davos last week.

In a speech that has since been translated into dozens of languages, Mr. Milei stunned the normally left-leaning audience at Davos by blaming the decades of economic malaise that has plagued Argentina on the “collectivist” policies of his predecessors. Government, he said, is not the solution to what ails societies. Government is the problem, he said.

“The case of Argentina is an empirical demonstration that no matter how rich you may be, how much you may have in terms of natural resources, how skilled your population may be, how educated, or how many bars of gold you may have in the central bank — if measures are adopted that hinder the free functioning of markets, competition, price systems, trade and ownership of private property, the only possible fate is poverty,” he said.

As much as 40 percent of Argentina’s population is described as living in poverty, and inflation is currently running at a rate of 211 percent annually, the highest rate in 32 years. In Latin America, only Venezuela faces worse inflation than Argentina.

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As of 2024, what are the statistics regarding poverty?

annual inflation rate of 211% is highest in 32 years

What economic issue did Milei want to address?

Javier Milei was inaugurated as Argentina's president on December 10, 2023.

Title:

Content: Countdown to the day of issuance
0
23
11
50.
Go to Election Zone
Argentina's presidential election with 143% annual inflation: far-right candidate Millet wins, once said "no business with socialism"
Argentina 's right-wing candidate Mille (left) won the presidential election, and on the 19th, her sister Carina (left) thanked her supporters. Photo Credit: GettyImages
What we want you to know is
Millet, a far-right liberal, refused to do business with “socialists ” before the election and was seen as targeting leftist Brazil and China, Argentina ’ s largest and second-largest trading partners, respectively.
He said China could be a business partner for Argentina ’ s private companies and that he would not interfere, but that his government would not sign agreements with the Communist Party and would not encourage relations with it.
In Argentina ’ s presidential runoff on Sunday, far-right candidate Javier Milei defeated the current economy minister and leftist candidate Sergio Massa in the second round of voting.
The election result was described as an agreement by Argentinian society, which is experiencing a hundred percent inflation rate, to apply “shock therapy ” to the country ’ s economic policies.
There are also fears that Millet ’ s conservative social policies could seriously undermine education and human rights in Argentina.
Argentina ’ s presidential election system is a two-round voting system, and Massa temporarily led in the first round of voting in October, but this Sunday ’ s final result, Milai defeated Massa by more than 10 percentage points (Milai won 55.7% of the vote, while Massa won 44.3%).
Sunday ’ s election also ended earlier than usual, with Massa publicly admitting defeat at 8: 00 local time and announcing his resignation as economy minister to help the new government transition.
Mirai gave a speech at 10: 00 p.m. local time.
He said Argentina needed a huge structural reform, with no gradual, lukewarm and half-hearted surplus, or it would “go to the worst crisis in Argentine history. ”
Mile points out that Argentine society is facing inflation, economic stagnation, low employment and poverty, and he promises to solve these problems with liberalism.
Millet will take office as president on December 10.
Argentina Votes for ‘ Shock Therapy ’ With Biggest Inflation in 32 Years
Lucas Romero, head of Argentina ’ s political consultancy Synopsis, said Millet ’ s victory was due to what he said was a unique personal trait that was closer to popular desire for change, an election that showed the fatigue, weariness, and protest vote of most Argentines.
The election comes as Argentina faces crippling debt pressures and inflation, with $45 billion of debt owed to the International Monetary Fund, the highest inflation in 32 years (Argentina ’ s annual inflation soared to 143% in October, its highest since 1991) and the black market exchange rate for the local dollar soaring to 1,900 pesos from 163 pesos to $1 a year ago. Dollars.
It is not difficult to understand that the result of the election was the Argentine people said "no" to the economic policies of the current government, and Reuters called it the "shock therapy" chosen by the Argentine people.
Shock therapy is a radical way to curb inflation. By tightening the currency, the government suppresses consumption, forcibly bridging the gap between supply and demand, and curbing inflation in a short period of time.
But the social economy suffered a great impact, so there is a "shock therapy" metaphor.
Millet is an economic liberal who calls Argentina a tax hell and should cut government spending quickly to balance the budget.
He also advocated abolishing the central bank of Argentina and replacing the current depreciating peso with the US dollar.
Millet ’ s proposals for reform resonated particularly with young voters who were angry about the economic downturn.
They are tired of the fact that Argentina has long been governed by either the current leftist government, Unión por la Patria, or the right-wing JxC, and that Millet ’ s party, the Partido Libertario, was founded in 2018, mostly by young people.
Millet ’ s supporters say only he can root out the political status quo and economic woes that have plagued South America ’ s second-largest economy for years.
Santiago Neria, a 34-year-old accountant, said Milai was the only option to keep Argentina from falling into tragedy, while Irene Sosa, a 20-year-old student, said, “Milai represents the future of young people like me, and Massa represents all the problems of our country. ”
Mariano, an Argentine citizen currently living in Taipei, told the Critic Network that although he disagrees with Millet ’ s political ideas and policies, he believes that someone must make a change in Argentina.
He also believes that no matter what Millet does, the situation in Argentina will not be worse, the only concern is Millet's decision on social policy.
Millet is economically liberal, arguing that health care and education should be privatized, and even compulsory education should be abolished, "so that everyone in Argentina can pay for their services."
He is a conservative on social issues, calls himself a Catholic, and opposes abortion (which was legalized by the Argentine Congress in 2020).
Milley is also a follower of former US President Donald Trump, claiming that climate change is a lie, that sex education destroys families, that the sale of human organs should be legalized, and that people have the right to own guns.
Millet ’ s deputy, Victoria Villarruel, is also facing a lot of controversy. The daughter of a soldier, she has long denied the crimes of Argentina ’ s military dictatorship, and she has promised to expand the military budget after her election.
This reflects Argentina ’ s dark military history, with six coups d ’ état by the Argentine army between 1930 and 1976.
Argentina has cut its military budget since its return to democracy in 1983.
Brazil and China "congratulate" Millet for "not doing business with socialism"
Millet, a far-right liberal, refused to do business with “socialists ” before the election and was seen as targeting leftist Brazil and China, Argentina ’ s largest and second-largest trading partners, respectively.
He said China could be a business partner for Argentina ’ s private companies and that he would not interfere, but that his government would not sign agreements with the Communist Party and would not encourage relations with it.
In August this year, the Argentine government joined the "BRICS 5" led by China and Brazil, and together with six countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia became the "BRICS 11". Milai's election also added variables to Argentina's BRICS membership.
Former US President Donald Trump congratulated Milai on the social platform, saying that the world is watching the election, he will be proud of Milai's victory, and even more bluntly said that Milai will turn the country and make "Argentina great again!"
However, the current president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said only that he congratulated Argentina for showing order and peace in the election, and he wished the new government well, without mentioning Mille. He stressed that Brazil will always be a brother state of Argentina and always willing to work with Argentina.
Colombia ’ s left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, meanwhile, called it a “sad day ” for Latin America.

Javier Milei plans to replace the Argentine peso with the US dollar as part of his economic reform agenda.

Title:

Content: Javier Milei is elected president of Argentina.
Libertarian Javier Milei, who won the presidency of Argentina on Sunday, promised a radical overhaul to address decades of policy mismanagement, but his radical and bold ideas also raised doubts.
According to the official electoral body, after Sunday ’ s runoff, 99% of the votes were counted, and Milei received 56% of the votes, beating the 44% of the votes of Sergio Massa, the current economy minister.
The number of votes he won was unexpected, and Massa conceded the defeat before the results were announced.
Speaking to Argentines on Sunday night, Milei said his victory marked the beginning of "the reconstruction of Argentina."
“Today Argentina ’ s decline is beginning to end, ” he said.
“Today, the pattern of poverty in a country that is everywhere is over, one that benefits only a part of the population, while the majority suffers. ”
In the capital, Buenos Aires, hundreds of Milei ’ s supporters honked their horns, set off fireworks and sang his popular song against the political elite, “Get them all off! ”.
Milei ’ s main campaign promises include abandoning the peso and switching to the dollar and shutting down the central bank, while slashing public spending in an attempt to get the country of 46 million people out of trouble.
However, Milei ’ s shock therapy could also set Argentina on an uncertain path, with some economists warning that dollarizing the $622 billion economy while international reserves run out could plunge the South American country into another round of hyperinflation.
At the same time, IMF officials called on the next administration to restart the economy quickly, stressing that there was no time for progressive policies.
Argentina last week released its latest October inflation figures, which rose more than 140% a year to a 32-year high.
Milei will take office on December 10.
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Javier Milei is a libertarian and self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist, indicating his political ideology aligns with these philosophies.

Title:

Content: International News

Who Is Javier Milei?

Alex Paszkowicz

Brandishing a chainsaw throughout his electoral campaign, the libertarian and self-proclaimed ‘anarcho-capitalist’ Javier Milei won the Argentine general election on 19th November 2023. Milei’s policies and personality cause controversy, so who is the television pundit turned politician?

Beating his rival Sergio Massa with 14.4 million votes to Massa’s 11.5 million, Milei will begin his 4-year mandate starting on 10th of December. After winning a majority of just 4 out of the twenty-four Argentine provinces, Massa conceded defeat at the Unión por la Patria‘s campaign house before the results were officially published.

The centre-left finance minister admits that “obviously these are not the results we hoped for, and I have spoken to Javier Milei to congratulate him because he’s the president that the majority of Argentines have chosen for the next four years”.

Massa has also hinted that he will retire from front-line politics.

The Peronist political movement has been pushed out of government

Milei’s victory has dismantled the left-wing political establishment, even ending Argentina’s 2-party political system. Created in the 1940s by Juan and Eva Perón, the Peronist political movement has been pushed out of government, despite ruling for sixteen out of the last twenty years. His campaign fell short despite Massa continuously appealing to voters’ fears surrounding Milei’s volatile character and risky economic policies.

Compared with Massa, and judging by the election result, Milei is seen as the lesser of two evils in Argentina, as the previous Peronist government could not provide economic stability.

The third-largest Latin American economy has almost reached inflation of 150%, and 40% of Argentina’s 45 million population is in poverty. Furthermore, the International Monetary Fund has rescued the Argentine state twenty-two times, with the most recent loan of $44 billion in 2018.

Milei used his platform […] to circulate conspiracy theories

Economist Sergio Armella believes, “it is indisputable that a swift change from the failed economic policies of the past is imperative. The accumulated economic imbalances have grown too large and must be addressed promptly”.

Nicknamed ‘El Loco’ and before running for president, Milei used his platform on television to circulate conspiracy theories around election fraud and Argentina’s economic problems.

Combined with his extravagant personality and viral TikTok videos, he targeted a younger audience who had grown up through economic hardship and strict Coronavirus lockdowns. Milei’s camp is also known to question the national consensus, which has lasted four decades, over the crimes of its 1976 to 1983 dictatorship, which killed around 30,000 people.

“The reconstruction of Argentina begins” [Milei]

The man with five cloned dogs, each named after a different right-wing economist, claims that with his new mandate, ‘“the reconstruction of Argentina begins”. Calling the result a “miracle” in his victory speech, he says that the result “marks the end of decadence in Argentina”.

He believes Argentina will return to being a “global power”, while alluding to those conspiracies he supported in his past where previous governments, “shared the state amonpoliticians and their friends”.

Although he abandoned his chainsaw to improve his public image, the symbol refers to his promise to decrease inflation by cutting public spending by 15% and privatising state companies, while reducing fuel and electricity subsidies.

Milei wants to abolish the central bank and adopt the US dollar as its official currency, to stop the country from printing more money like previous governments. If the dollar’s value continues to devalue, then inflation could rise with a risk of hyperinflation, which could return after three decades.

Aims to sever ties with China

Milei has no interest in joining the BRICS alliance, and aims to sever ties with China to help move towards privatising state-led companies like the oil industry.

According to economist Elizabeth Bacigalupo, this includes an estimated $10 billion in annual savings on energy imports through a new gas pipeline in Vaca Muerta. Also, this year, the drought in Argentina reduced its agricultural exports from $39 billion in 2022 to $23 billion. But with next year’s predictions, exports could be up to $40 billion.

The problem Milei faces is how fragmented the Argentine Congress is. The coalition he formed with the conservatives after the first round only has 10% of the Senate and 15% of the lower house, meaning he will have to negotiate with his political rivals to push through his complicated reforms.

Any delay in economic progress could lead to more inflation and social unrest.

Despite insults hurled at Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, by Milel throughout his campaign, he wished him support on social media, saying “democracy is the voice of the people and must always be respected”.

Donald Trump believes Milei will “Make Argentina Great Again”

Former US president Donald Trump believes Milei will ‘Make Argentina Great Again’. Businessman Elon Musk expressed a similar sentiment and posted, ‘prosperity is ahead for Argentina’.

Reactions from Milei supporters are varied, with voters desperate for change. A supporter named Michelle Chelsea in Buenos Aires says, “economic policies have led us to this situation. Today, more than half of the population has voted for a different option, and I hope that things will change a lot”.

A Food Service Worker, Alejandro Bravo, is hopeful for the future. “It’s an incredible joy. It’s the end of a never-ending decline, so to corrupt politicians, we say, “get lost”‘.

“We’ve had enough corruption, enough insecurity, enough inflation, enough poverty. We were very tired, we wanted something new, we wanted to see new faces”, states supporter Barbara Rubin.

Alex Paszkowicz

Featured image courtesy of Angelica Reyes via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.

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International NewsNews

Javier Milei secured 56% of the vote in the presidential election, winning against Sergio Massa who received 44% of the votes.

Javier Milei is scheduled to be inaugurated as President of Argentina on December 10, 2023.

Approximately 40% of Argentina's population is currently living in poverty.

As of 2024, what are the statistics regarding poverty?

Argentina is currently facing severe economic challenges, including extremely high inflation rates, a significant debt burden, and impending recession, which are exacerbating poverty and declining living standards.

Title:

Content: Argentine President Javier Melea FP
In his first speech...
Argentina's new president warns of economic shock
Libertarian economist Javier Milley took office in Argentina on Sunday, warning in his first speech that he had no choice but to commit to a sharp and painful fiscal path to fix the country ’ s worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation heading towards 200 percent.
The president told Congress immediately after taking office: “There is no alternative to a shocking amendment, there is no money. ”
Milley, 53, took over from Peruvian leader Alberto Fernandez, whose government has been unable to stop rising prices.
Milley, a former television analyst who has become famous for his rhetoric against his opponents, China and the Pope, said: “The outgoing government has left us on the road to hyperinflation, and we will do everything we can to avoid such a catastrophe. ”
Although the letter did not include any details, Milley added that "the main steps will include a fiscal adjustment of about 5% of the country's GDP through the introduction of cuts that will be borne by the state and not the private sector."
Zelensky to visit Argentina in bid to win support from global South
Milley ’ s aggressive spending cuts have been well received by investors, who say it could stabilise a struggling economy but risks pushing more people into financial hardship, with more than two fifths already living in poverty.
Argentina ’ s net foreign currency reserves are estimated at $10 billion, and annual inflation has reached 143 percent and is on the rise.
Recession became imminent in the country, and capital controls caused exchange rates to be uncontrolled.
In his speech, Milley warned that “inflation could reach 15,000 percent a year if it is not reined in, ” vowing to“ fight as hard as I can ” to control it.
He also warned of a $100 billion debt “bomb. ”
Argentina, a major grain exporter, needs to renew a $44 billion non-performing loan program with the International Monetary Fund, while Milley needs to improve relations with trading partners China and Brazil, whom he criticized during his election campaign.
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As of 2024, what are the statistics regarding poverty?

annual inflation rate of 211% is highest in 32 years

What economic issue did Milei want to address?

Javier Milei won the Argentine general election on November 19, 2023.

Title:

Content: Overview:

Argentina's latest presidential election offers plenty of sensational fodder for the presses. But there's a deeper issue here, a politics of desperation, that we would do well to watch as it rises in the world.

Reading Time: 6 minutes

On November 19, Argentina elected Javier Milei as its next president, to take office this December. His politics have been compared to those of Donald Trump (in his showmanship) and Jair Bolsonaro (in his rightwing extremism and denialism), but his ideas go further than both. Milei calls himself an anarcho-capitalist (a form of libertarian), whose stated aims are “blowing up” the central bank, changing the Argentinian peso for the dollar, permitting the private sale of human organs, and closing ministries for education, health, women, and culture while slashing welfare payments.

Milei has also been called a “minarchist” for his minimal-government belief that the state’s only purpose is to protect citizens’ rights to free action. To this end, proposed bans on abortion and loosened gun laws run in lockstep with his acceptance of trans identities and desire to legalize more drugs. He denies the scale of Argentina’s brutal history of state terror in 1976 to 1983, and when he first rose in the polls, there was a panicked rush among citizens to change their pesos for dollars, fearing economic disaster.

So why did he win?

And not just by a hair, but with 56% of the vote against his runoff opponent, Sergei Massa?

The historical underpinnings run deep, but human behavior in response to the current economic moment is also not complex. Urban poverty hit 40.1% in 2023, as inflation reached 50.7% earlier this year. When the official exchange rate was devalued by 22% the day after the primaries (in which Milei’s popularity caused panic), it caused a 12.4% inflation spike. This is in an enconomy where some 48.1% are informally or self-employed, and thus without salaried protections against the greatest financial hits.

An outsider expecting rational economic actors might assume that if Milei’s presence in the polls only destabilized an already precarious situation, surely humans would avoid voting for him again. But the logic of longstanding financial stress runs deeper than traditional economic configurations of the “rational actor”: when there is no confidence in existing state structures, perhaps it is best to pull off the bandaid quickly. The immediate pain will be hard, but maybe, just maybe, the destruction of the old order will bring about something new.

This is the politics of desperation and disillusionment.

The world would do well to pay attention to its rise.

Argentinian histories of low confidence in the state

There’s a famous, apocryphal, and above all cruel expression in economics: “There have only been four types of economies in the world: advanced, developing, Japan, and Argentina.” The point driven at here is that Japan seemed to rise from the ashes, with everything working against it, after World War II and even now with an aging workforce. Meanwhile Argentina, a country with a natural bounty, seemed to destroy confidence in itself at every turn.

This is a cruel expression for a few reasons: one being that Argentina is not alone even in South America, as a country with great internal resources that has struggled to turn its holdings into wealth for its citizens. Another reason is the why. While Japan recovered from WWII by growing a commercial empire through top-down industrial relationships with surrounding countries, Argentina under labor-nationalist Juan Domingo Perón had the audacity in the 1950s to try to nationalize its British-owned railways. This choice met with swift reprisal from Western powers, thereafter unwilling to invest. Before World War II, Argentina had relied heavily on military rule. After inflation spiked and labor strikes surged as global investors pulled out, it was back to decades of fraught authoritarianism.

One of the worst coups started with a 600 percent inflation surge in 1976. That seven-year period yielded up to 30,000 disappeared human beings during the state’s “Dirty War” against leftists, and ended only after the military attempted to take the Falkland Islands from the British. This failure would yield the modern democratic state, but with a low opinion of both the military and the bureaucracy. In 1989, ahead of a massive inflation crisis of up to 4,900 percent, only 30,000 out of 30 million citizens were paying income taxes.

Now, inflation can address domestic debt, but Argentina’s massive fiscal deficit was informed centrally by external debt, in dollars to the rest of the world. During the banking crisis of 1990, banks forced client deposits into bonds under the BONEX Plan, essentially taking citizens’ savings from them with a promise that their investment in the future of the country would pay off. Citizens were not happy about this, of course.

The government then introduced the Convertibility Plan in 1991, which tried to peg the Argentinian peso to the US dollar at a 1:1 rate. This process involved Argentina embracing US neoliberal state policies: relaxing labor protections, massively privatizing industries, and otherwise bringing the world back into Argentinian markets. Did the plan reduce inflation? Yes. It also raised unemployment, reduced wages, and stratified class outcomes. And it led to more austerity measures over time, because the government’s debt kept rising, forcing more of the annual budget into “debt servicing” to other countries.

Being open to world markets also meant being more vulnerable to their downturns, such as a major wobble in 2001, which sparked labor collapse and food riots in Argentina despite its local wealth of grain and beef. The peso was unpegged in 2002, after the government had restricted bank withdrawals to keep citizens from “financial flight” into other currencies and markets. Once the peso was floating freely, though, people panicked anyway. After years of seeing the dollar as the more valuable and stable currency, they rushed to exchange their holdings (which were now all in pesos) back into US dollars by other means. That rush caused another inflationary spike.

Argentina underwent two major debt restructuring deals in that decade, but they just created more problems. A deal in 2001 allowed Argentina to pay interest only to those who had opted in to the restructuring plan, and the exclusion of “holdouts” was reasserted after 2010, when the debt plan was agreed upon by 93% of bondholders. The remaining 7% weren’t having this, though: a few hedge fund creditors sued the Argentinian government for breach of a principle of equal treatment for bondholders, pari passu. The South District Court of New York agreed with them, and even though Argentina tried to continue paying its “holdin” creditors, as per the debt restructuring plan, those payments were not permitted until Argentina paid the holdouts, too, in compliance with the court’s rulings.

Argentina was forced into a massive default in 2014. And again in 2020. And this year, analysts believe it’s on track for another soon.

Why? Because Argentina’s banking system isn’t an independent force. It is yoked to a highly litigious set of international players, and vulnerable to every global market crash as well.

Seen this way, why wouldn’t the average Argentinian want to bring it down?

Dollarization and other flawed promises

The complex problem for Argentinians voting out of desperation is twofold:

For one, as much as they might associate the days of the dollar with a period of relative stability, it was never a simple matter of pegging one currency to another. The arrangement expressly came with Argentina’s willingness to embrace neoliberal policies that yielded stark divides in civilian life and other market outcomes. For Milei to “dollarize” the country now would require a similar willingness to play ball with international institutions and their policy demands. The moment the peso is eliminated, by being exchanged in its entirety for dollars, Argentina cedes a great deal of financial policy to external players.

And yet, that is precisely the issue currently plaguing Argentina’s banks.

But also, not just Argentina, despite the glibness of the apocryphal economics saying.

The problems of our global financial system are serious enough that they will require a much more holistic reckoning with the consequences of fifty years of neoliberal policy. In July, a UN joint commission released “Soaring Debt Threatens Global Prosperity”, a report that highlights the staggering rates of debt servicing endured by 40% of the developing world. If these debts were simply between states, that would be one matter, more easily resolved; but the hyper-privatized yet undertaxed nature of our global economy has the vast majority of these countries forced into austerity measures to pay off complex debts to groups like the hedge fund creditors who pushed Argentina into default in 2014.

In other words, this will keep happening until we develop policies that can offset the private-investment predation currently facing many countries in precarity.

The second problem is one that Colombia also experienced this past year, when many on both the left (with excitement) and the right (with trepidation) expected the first leftist president to bring about dramatic reforms: Milei is just one person in his government. Just as Gustavo Petro found himself embroiled in parliamentary quarrels between competing groups, so too does Milei’s victory not come with the resounding legislative presence needed to steamroll all his grand plans into operation. He, too, is going to have to negotiate.

In practice, this means that Argentinians currently thrilled by the possibility of change are again going to meet with disillusionment. Either Milei will pull off his dollarization, and they will learn that this move makes the country no less vulnerable to global shocks and creditors, or he won’t, and amid his interim achievement of “easier” goals (e.g., the demolition of whole ministries), Argentinians will experience socioeconomic shocks that again bring them to the streets in protest… or else to live, having nowhere else to go.

GLOBAL HUMANIST SHOPTALK M L Clark is a Canadian writer by birth, now based in Medellín, Colombia, who publishes speculative fiction and humanist essays with a focus on imagining a more just world.

Javier Milei approved over 300 economic reforms in Argentina.

Title:

Content: 29 January 2024, 09: 38
“There is no plan B. ”
Miley assured that the promised reforms in Argentina will fulfill
Argentine President Miley vows to deliver on promised reforms
Read 360tv in
Argentine President Javier Miley assured that he will not give up his election promises to shake up the country ’ s economy, even if reforms in the short term can have negative consequences.
The politician said this in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
“There is no plan B.
There is no place for feelings, emotions.
I can't afford that luxury.
47 million people are waiting for answers, ” said Miley.
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At the end of last year, the President of Argentina approved 300 reforms in the field of economy.
Among them were rules that prevent the privatization of public companies.
Also on the list was a law on rent, which prohibits renting apartments for a period of less than three years, as well as shifting all extraordinary expenses to the owner of the property.
In an interview with the WSJ, Miley stressed that this is only a quarter of the reforms that are proposed to be carried out.
“As soon as these laws are adopted, we are ready to do more, ” the politician added.
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Argentina's annual inflation rate under President Javier Milei is 254%, according to government data.

Title:

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Argentines Take Feminist Strike to the Streets on International Women’s Day

Activists demand an end to austerity measures, growing poverty and worsening food insecurity under President Milei.

Argentinian women from all walks of life will take to the streets nationwide on 8 March, International Women’s Day, as part of a feminist strike calling for an end to the country’s growing poverty, which already affects 57% of the population of 46 million.

The protesters’ “most important demand” is a solution to Argentina’s “food emergency”, said María Claudia Albornoz, an activist from La Poderosa, a group that defends the rights of the five million people living in the country’s 6,500 slums, or villas miseria (misery villages).

Three months after right-wing libertarian president Javier Milei took office, Argentina’s ever-increasing food inflation has reached 56%, according to the latest analysis from La Poderosa. Government data shows the country’s annual inflation rate is 254%.

Real-terms wages and pensions are deteriorating, and people go to supermarkets not knowing whether the money in their pockets will be enough to buy foods they could afford just a few days ago.

Shoppers have one certainty, though: what were once basic goods such as shampoo are now luxury items. The small local grocery stores that allow their customers to pay on an informal trust-based credit system now keep track of only the items and quantities purchased, no longer bothering to note down the prices that are constantly rising.

The spiralling cost of living has been worsened still by Milei’s cuts to ‘ollas populares’, community kitchens run by social, civil and religious organisations, which are a last resort for the most impoverished families.

There are around 44,000 of these kitchens across Argentina, which were able to produce around 10 million meals a day last year.

Since then, Milei’s administration has stopped the government packages of non-perishable food staples, such as pasta, rice and yerba mate (a traditional herbal drink) being sent to these kitchens, arguing that it must conduct an audit on how they use these resources.

The cuts have led to “a very desperate situation”, said Albornoz, whose group La Poderosa runs 158 kitchens nationwide.

“Without these basic food staples, we cannot cook,” she said. “This causes us enormous distress, sadness and pain, because we can’t feed our families, a role that is very much attached to women and gender non-conforming people.”

Protesters have taken to the streets nationwide to demand the cuts are reversed, but the government has doubled down.

Ministers claim the kitchens’ volunteers — many of whom are part of larger groups of organised unemployed, informal workers and leftist activists known as ‘picketers’ — are committing “extortion” by using food to lure people to their protests. They say they made the cuts to end this practice, advising people to enrol in the government’s food support program rather than relying on the community kitchens.

The minister of human capital, Sandra Pettovello, even mocked protesters as they gathered outside the ministry, saying: “Boys, are you hungry? Come one by one and I’ll write down your ID number, your name, where you’re from and you’ll receive help individually.”

But four days later, as more than 10,000 people lined up to meet her, Pettovello signed a $210,000 food assistance agreement with the Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches of Argentina. “No longer will the picketing organisations be in charge of distributing food and social plans paid for by the national state with the money contributed by working Argentines,” she said.

Shifting Priorities

It is primarily the austerity measures, growing poverty and worsening food insecurity that the 8M feminist strike will denounce this week.

For the first time since feminists began holding open decision-making assemblies in 2015, participants have agreed to make tackling hunger the demonstration’s priority.

Organisers have drafted a manifesto to read out during the demonstration, which includes statements aiming to challenge ‘libertarian’ ideas advocated by Milei, such as: “With hunger and without rights, there is no freedom” and “Enough of austerity and repression”.

Assemblies allow any civil society group or individual to present their concerns to be discussed. They have achieved something that no other social movement in Argentina has managed to: working together to tackle issues of reproduction of domestic and community life, as well as formal and informal work.

But in previous years, the assemblies’ middle-class feminists, who are more likely to be educated, have sought to give priority to protests on issues such as access to abortion, femicides and gender-based violence.

Now, as the country’s economic situation has worsened, their goals have shifted. They are now in agreement with working-class feminists, who have long argued that food security must be their top concern.

“What seems to me to have changed this year is that we are a priority,” Albornoz said. “Feminists were able to begin to reach a consensus on issues that we, the slum dwellers — the people who cannot cover the basic food basket — consider a priority.”

The food basket Albornoz referred to are the essential food items required to sustain an adult for a month. These cost $110 when converted from pesos at the official exchange rate, more than half the average monthly earnings of a person living in an urban area ($218).

The assemblies allow villeras (women who live in slums), feminist academics, trade unionists and LGBTIQ people to share their lived experiences and political thinking, which has enabled the feminists to agree on strategies of resistance.

This is more important than ever, as the misogynist discourse Milei regularly touted during his election campaign has in recent months materialised as an avalanche of regressive measures stripping away the rights of women and LGBTIQ people.

The president has scrapped the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, replacing the entire department with an undersecretariat for protection against gender violence in the newly created Ministry of Human Capital.

His government has also ended two support programmes for victims of gender violence — one that sought to strengthen their economic independence, and another that provided psycho-social and legal help — and fired many of the public employees who worked on the hotline for counselling and assisting victims.

It also closed the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, and banned the use of language that is inclusive and gender-neutral in public offices or documents. Defending the move, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said inclusive language was being weaponised as “a political business”.

The government has further plans to weaken or dismantle legislation that feminists fought for, such as the 2019 Micaela Law, which introduced mandatory training in gender and gender violence for all public servants and the Law on the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy, which legalised abortion in 2020.

Ministers claim these closures and austerity cuts are needed to fix the ailing economy, but the main attacks on women and LGBTIQ people have come from the president himself.

In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in mid-January, Milei spoke of “the cruelty of the bloody agenda of abortion”, said gender inequality no longer exists and branded feminism “a ridiculous and unnatural fight between men and women”.

Feminists fear the president’s misogyny, combined with his cuts, mean Argentina is “heading towards a scenario of worsening violence in general and gender violence”, according to Raquel Vivanco, who founded the Observatorio Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven (the Now That They See Us Observatory), which tracks femicides in the country.

“These structural conditions of extreme poverty and unemployment, as they increase inequalities, create more violence that can in turn increase numbers of femicide statistics,” said Vivanco.

There were 42 femicides in Argentina in January and February of this year. The observatory recorded the highest-ever number of femicides (297) in 2019, which was rightist president Mauricio Macri’s last year in office and was characterised by austerity policies that were harsh but not as extreme as those being introduced by Milei.

“Left With Absolutely No Rights

Though widespread hunger and attacks on women’s rights are the protesters’ main priorities, they also want Milei to address his measures of ‘economic terror’ and his denials that gender inequalities exist in Argentina.

Lucía Cavallero, a sociologist and researcher at the University of Buenos Aires and a member of Ni Una Menos (Not One Less), a group that fights gender violence, told openDemocracy about the dire economic situation in Argentina.

“There is an unprecedented devaluation of the peso, a deliberate freezing of wages and social subsidies, so inflation is brutal, and a perverse discourse of warning that it could be worse,” she said. “Added to all this is the deregulation of the economy in almost all areas.”

The government’s own data shows that one million people fell into poverty every month for the past three months. Albornoz believes these figures are an underestimate, though, telling openDemocracy that La Poderosa’s analysis indicates an increase of six million impoverished people in the past two months.

Argentina’s school year recently started, forcing many families to try to find creative solutions to not being able to afford school supplies, which cost an average of $150, or uniforms.

The best case scenario saw children reuse items from previous years or pick up supplies from the donation drives that took place across the country. At worst, though, “mothers said they would have to choose which children to send to school because they don’t have the school supplies or the smocks to send them all,” said Cavallero.

The effects of this economic and political turmoil are also being seen in housing, particularly since the government repealed the law regulating the rental market on 29 December.

“It left us tenants with absolutely no rights,” said Tamara Lescano, an activist from the social movement Inquilinas Agrupadas (Tenants United). “The lack of a legal framework enables real estate abuse”.

Rental contracts now have no minimum period and are able to be terminated at landlords’ discretion, without a need to consult the tenants or give a reason for the eviction — which was previously illegal. Landlords can also include unreasonable clauses in the tenancy agreements.

Lescano said the private rental sector in Argentina, which already encompasses some 10 million people, is growing — yet fewer and fewer landlords own more properties than ever.

Inquilinas Agrupadas receives an average of between 40 and 50 requests for advice every day, mainly from women with dependent children, pressured by their mostly male landlords.

“They Are Coming For Us”

The 8M strike faces a fresh challenge this year. Four days after Milei took office, his government outlawed any public protest involving the blocking of roads with a new ‘anti-picketing’ protocol that contains specific clauses allowing the police to criminalise, persecute and stigmatise protesters.

“They identify you in the marches, they take pictures of you, they film you. When we mobilise, the police, who are very violent, quickly repress us,” said Albornoz.

“This has already happened at various times,” she added, referring to hundreds of protests against Milei’s austerity measures that have been organised by different social organisations across the country in recent months.

The protocol also allows the government to issue protest organisers with hefty fines, deprive demonstrators of social aid, and punish parents or guardians who take minors to the marches.

These measures are attempts to intimidate the poorest, many of whom are women, said Gabriela De la Rosa, a member of the Polo Obrero, a social organisation affiliated to Argentina’s Trotskyist Workers’ Party, which runs 3,000 community kitchens nationwide.

“The movement of the unemployed is made up mostly of women comrades, who mobilise with their entire families because they have no one to leave their children with in order to demand food for their children,” De la Rosa told openDemocracy. “On the picket lines, in the encampments, in the mobilisations, the families often have a pot to eat, and at home, they don’t.”

As well as the risk of harsh policing, Argentinian feminists worry their protest could turn violent — fearing Milei’s repeated attacks, coupled with food insecurity and the general uncertainty caused by inflation and low wages, have set the stage for social unrest.

“There is fear of what might happen in the 8 March demonstration,” Albornoz acknowledged. “We have been holding assemblies to dispel this fear and to make the women understand that if we don’t take to the streets and defend our rights, we are going to lose much more than we have already lost.”

The feminists “will take all possible precautions” to avoid violence in the 8 March demonstration, said economist Candelaria Botto, the director of Economía Feminista, which seeks to expose gender inequalities in the world of work and business.

“But we know that we have to be there, on the streets, because they are coming for us.”

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What economic issue did Milei want to address?

Argentina owes the International Monetary Fund $44 billion.

Title:

Content: More than 300 economic reform measures in Argentina rebounded, new president ignored: urged Congress to speed up deliberation
Written by external sources (international)
Published: Updated:
After becoming president of Argentina, Javier Milei, known as the “Trump of Argentina, ” launched a“ shock therapy ” and issued an economic decree with more than 300 reforms, including privatization of state-owned enterprises, an end to export restrictions and deregulation.
According to the US media "New York Times", Reuters and other foreign media reported on December 23, Argentina's national inflation has accelerated rapidly in the past two weeks, and more than a dozen provinces have declared a state of economic emergency.
In recent days, people across Argentina have taken to the streets to show their dissatisfaction with the Mirai government.
However, Millet remained unmoved and called for a special session of parliament to speed up the implementation of the reform policy.
“High inflation has become synonymous with Argentina, and people are used to rising prices.
But after Millet took office, people ’ s lives became more painful. ”
The New York Times reported on the 23rd that in the past two weeks since Millet became president, prices in Argentina have soared at a dazzling rate.
The owner of a bar in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires has seen the price of beef soar by 73% and the price of cucumber by 140%; a Uber driver says she now pays 60% more for filling the tank; and a father says he pays twice as much for diapers as he did last month.
The report quoted government data as saying that the price of gasoline has recently soared by 60%.
There are also analysts who predict that Argentine house prices will rise another 25% to 30% in the near future; from now until February next year, house prices will continue to rise 80%.
Argentine President Javier Milei announces economic measures in a televised speech in Buenos Aires on December 20, 2023.
This is a screenshot of a video released by the Argentine government.
(ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT TV / via REUTERS TV / Handout via REUTERS)
“We ’ ve been worried since Milai won, ” said Fernando Galli, 36, who was pessimistic about the situation.
He is a high school philosophy teacher in Buenos Aires and is raising two young daughters (one 6 years old and one 18 months old).
The New York Times said that most Argentines are struggling to figure out how to make ends meet, and every time they buy necessities, it is like taking a complicated economics course.
As President, Argentina is in the midst of a severe economic crisis, with a cumulative inflation rate of 142.7% and a poverty rate of more than 40% over the past 12 months.
Argentina is also facing a debt crisis, with more than $44 billion owed to the International Monetary Fund.
Since this year, Argentina ’ s inflation rate has peaked at 8.4% in April, and some experts predict that Argentina ’ s gross domestic product will shrink by 3.1% this year and another 0.2% in 2024.
During his presidential campaign, Millet made "astonishing remarks" and proposed a number of "surprising" policy proposals. He promised to cut the central government departments from 18 to 8 and cut them to 9 on his first day in office, and quickly fulfilled this campaign promise.
In addition, he has promised to adopt so-called “economic shock therapy, ” advocating the“ burning up ” of poorly managed central banks, abolishing the peso, shifting to “dollarization ” across the board, slashing spending, allowing open carry of firearms, legalizing organ trade, and restricting abortion.
Milley himself issued an early warning.
At his inauguration ceremony on Dec. 10, Mr. Millet said publicly that he would reduce the size of government and rebuild the economy, something that would hurt at first, but “I would rather tell people the uncomfortable truth than the comfortable lies. ”
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 21, 2023, demonstrators protest against the new policies of Argentina ’ s new president, Mirai, outside the parliament building. (Reuters)
Two days after taking office (12), Millet began to engage in "shock therapy", taking a series of measures, including cutting government spending, reducing consumer subsidies, and stopping tenders for new public works, in an attempt to reduce the fiscal deficit and control inflation.
Argentina ’ s economy minister announced on the same day that the new government lowered the official exchange rate to 800 pesos per US dollar, a 54% devaluation.
On December 20, Millet signed an emergency economic decree announcing more than 300 reforms, including the privatization of state-owned enterprises, the end of export restrictions and the relaxation of regulations, in order to achieve the "liberalization" of the Argentine economy.
The New York Times quoted economists as saying that although Millet's measures are necessary to solve Argentina's long-term financial problems, they also cause short-term pain.
At the same time, some analysts question the lack of safeguards for the poorest people in Argentina.
One Argentinian put it bluntly: “It is impossible for people ’ s wages or incomes to adapt to this rate of inflation. ”
Thousands of people, led by representatives of the unemployed, took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Monday to stage the first mass protest since the Mirai government came to power against the new government ’ s “economic shock therapy ” and austerity policies, demanding more support for the poor.
Demonstrators hold flares outside the parliament building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 21, 2023, to protest against the new policies announced by Argentina ’ s new president, Miguel Millay. (Reuters)
In the face of public dissatisfaction, the Milai government did not move.
On the day of the protests, the Argentine government deployed a large number of police to stop protesters from blocking roads.
The Millet government has also threatened to take tough action against any group of organisations trying to thwart its plans through disruptive protests, and those blocking roads could lose their right to state benefits.
Manuel Adorni, a spokesman for Millet, also responded that higher inflation is an inevitable process to repair Argentina ’ s “distorted economy. ”
"There are many difficult and unresolved problems in Argentina, and we have to start solving them," he said.
We will inevitably experience months of high inflation, "he said.
On the evening of the 22nd local time, Millet said that he had submitted the law to the Argentine parliament on the same day, and called on the parliament to convene a special session between December 26 and January 31 to discuss the relevant issues.
Reported that the current parliament is in recess, the next meeting is scheduled for March next year.
This article is authorized by the Observer Network

"Javier Milei plans to privatize 12 public enterprises as part of his economic reform agenda in Argentina."

Title:

Content: International
International news.
Argentina considers austerity reforms, protests outside Congress like a battlefield
(Ming Pao News) Argentina ’ s Senate on Wednesday (12) initially approved the controversial austerity economic reform plan proposed by far-right President Milai, during which opponents violently demonstrated outside the country ’ s parliament, throwing gasoline bombs and burning cars, and police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to disperse.
The office of the president of Argentina condemned the "attempted coup by a terrorist organization".
Miley ’ s proposed economic reform package included declaring a one-year state of economic emergency to allow him as president to dissolve some federal agencies and privatize about a dozen public companies, including Aerolíneas Argentinas.
Other measures in the reform package include raising the threshold for receiving minimum retirement subsidies and weakening labor protection.
The bill originally received a vote of 36: 36 in the Senate, and finally on Wednesday night, Vice President and Senate President Vera Ruhr cast a vote in favor, breaking the deadlock and being passed by the whole. The Senate will then consider the provisions of the bill on a case-by-case basis and then submit it to the House of Representatives for final vote.
Congressman injured in hospital
Some protesters criticized the bill as including measures that hurt labor rights and set Argentina back 100 years.
The health department said seven protesters were hospitalized in pepper spray, including five lawmakers, and dozens of injured people were treated at the scene.
Security sources said at least 20 police officers were injured and 15 others were arrested.
Argentina is facing economic problems such as ultra-high inflation of 300%, and Miley has promoted radical “shock therapy ” since he took office in December, including cutting half of cabinet posts and 50,000 public jobs by executive order.
(AFP / BBC / Reuters)
Related Words: Austerity Policy Economic Reform Javier Milei Inflation in Argentina
Previous / Next News

President Javier Milei's economic reform decree includes the removal of rent price caps, aiming to loosen regulations on the rental market.

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Millie's attempts to liberalize Argentina's economy
366 rules changed, including privatization, housing and work
Demonstration in Argentina against the decree of President Javier Milli.
"E.B.A."
Last week, Argentina ’ s libertarian president, Javier Milley, issued a sweeping decree to change or abolish 366 economic rules in a country accustomed to heavy government intervention in the market.
The move is the first of its kind in Argentina ’ s history, as none of its democratically elected presidents has attempted such a massive dismantling of the system.
That ’ s exactly what Milley promised during his election campaign, waving a chainsaw to symbolize his attempt to cut public spending as Argentina struggles with three-figure inflation after decades of fiscal mismanagement.
However, according to Argentine law, Congress still has the power to flood Melli ’ s program.
Change of daily life
Ten days after taking office, and on the eve of the holidays, Milley presented his "necessary and urgent" decree to loosen some of the rules governing the country's economy, where annual inflation has reached 160 percent.
One big change will be the removal of all restrictions between tenant and landlord, such as laws on increasing rents.
In recent years, landlords have increasingly priced their properties in dollars to avoid falling into the rental income trap that has long been overtaken by rising inflation.
This was a nightmare for tenants in a country where access to the dollar was tightly controlled.
Melli ’ s plan also loosened labor laws, increasing the probation period for new employees from three to eight months.
Compensation for Groundless Dismissal Laws have been amended in the interest of companies, and plans are being made to renegotiate labor agreements in force since 1975.
He also lifted export restrictions and said the internet market would be liberalized.
Milley also abandoned rules preventing the privatization of government institutions, already setting his sights on the national airline and the oil company.
He also moved to limit the right to strike enshrined in the constitution.
Purpose of the decree
Milley, a figure whose rise to the country ’ s highest office surprised most observers, blames the interventionist and protectionist policies of previous governments for stifling the economy.
Before the decree was announced, the new government had already devalued the Argentine peso by more than 50 percent and announced massive cuts in generous government subsidies for fuel and transportation starting in January.
“The goal is to begin the process of rebuilding the country, restoring the freedom and independence of individuals and beginning to dismantle the vast amount of systems that have halted and hindered economic growth, ” Milley said.
One protester said: "There may be people with Stockholm syndrome.
They are fascinated by a model that impoverishes them. ”
The opposition, who was recently ousted from the government, criticized Milley for the decree, seeing it as a way to overcome his lack of a majority in Congress.
Miley Libertad Avanza, who is only two years old, has only 40 of the 257 seats in the House of Representatives and seven of the 72 seats in the Senate.
German Martinez, speaker of the parliament of the Peronist coalition, said: "Uniting for the homeland is not the right way.
They sent the reforms as bills.
“Don ’ t be afraid of democratic debate. ”
Constitutional lawyer Emiliano Vitaliani said the country's highest laws state that "in principle laws cannot be amended by decree and the president cannot replace Congress."
Political scientist Lara Guiboro said the resolution "crosses all boundaries and rules out many issues that need political agreements from Congress and the provinces."
Vitalini said the decree could be revoked if it was rejected by both houses of Congress.
Otherwise it will come into force on December 29.
Constitutional lawyer Alejandro Carrillo said in an article in the Lanacion newspaper that "the president has made a very big bet, and his success will depend on his ability to obtain legislative support that is not yet known."
It comes at a time when Argentina is stuck in the grip of an economic crisis with the highest inflation in 30 years.
Cecilia Rojas is searching every store in the vast city of Buenos Aires to find affordable gifts for her children for what is expected to be a bleak Christmas day this year as Argentina faces its worst economic crisis in decades.
Rojas, 47, said: “Before, I used to buy from a well-known toy chain, but now I ’ m looking at smaller stores nearby to find a better price.
Rojas, a psychologist, has two sons, one aged 17 and the other eight.
This year, they will each receive one gift, knowing that they have received many gifts in previous years. ”
Argentina ends the year with the highest inflation rate in the past 30 years, over 160 percent year-on-year.
The 50 percent devaluation of the peso, approved by the government of liberal President Javier Milley on Dec. 12 two days after taking office, has led to a new price spike in a country where more than 40 percent of the population is poor.
Games prices have risen by 110 to 230 percent this year, according to figures from the Argentine Chamber of Gaming Industry.
Thus, shoppers on Christmas Day should be patient and seasoned.
Ogostina Jago, a 23-year-old mother of four, said: "If you walk a little, you can find the same product in different stores at different prices."
"This year, we will buy him a gift thanks to the help we get from grandmothers and fortunately, there are many of them."
The country is also under the brunt of the radical measures of President Javier Mille ’ s new government, which has issued hundreds of decrees to revive the ailing economy.
Milley, who has pledged to cut government spending, also announced deep cuts in subsidies on fuel and the transport sector starting in January.
His government also scrapped a programme to control the prices of some goods introduced by the previous government to try to soften the impact of inflation.
Milley warned that the country was on the brink of hyperinflation and that things would get worse before they began to improve.
Alexandra Mazi, a 49-year-old schoolteacher who took part in a protest against the new measures, said: “They are starving people, using policies that have been applied in the past and have not worked, and all they are doing is impoverishing the working class. ”
Milley ’ s government has forced organizers of its first protest to pay tens of thousands of dollars to cover the cost of deploying security forces to protect it.
Euronews reported that thousands of people took part in a demonstration on Wednesday against Milley ’ s austerity measures and to commemorate the bloody 2001 protests that followed the country ’ s economic collapse.
Government spokesman Manuel Adorney said the cost of the massive deployment of police and riot police was 60 million pesos ($73,000 at the official exchange rate).
“The bill will be sent to social movements ” as they“ bear responsibility for the cost that should not be borne by citizens, ” he said.
Publish it.
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What industries were affected by Milei's deregulations?

"Javier Milei's economic reforms include the privatization of state-owned companies and industries."

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CenterAsia |
There is a risk that Argentina will not become a member of the BRICS
15: 36 04.09.2023
VALENTIN KATASONOV
The likely future president is set to change the current vector of foreign policy of the Latin American country
The next BRICS summit has ended in South Africa.
The main decision of the summit is the admission of new members.
On August 24, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that from January 1, 2024, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt and Argentina should become full members of the BRICS.
But for Argentina, it was immediately doubtful that she would take advantage of the invitation.
The application to join the organization was submitted by the current government and President of Argentina Alberto Fernandez.
But just a week or so before the BRICS summit, Argentina held a primaries, a preliminary round of presidential elections.
And according to the results of the primaries, it became clear that a radical “change of the guard ” could occur in the country.
The best chance of becoming the next president of the country was demonstrated by Javier Miley, representing the movement under the beautiful name "Forward to Freedom".
Miley received 30.04% of the vote.
The government alliance "Union for the Homeland", which is nominated by the Minister of Economy, Agriculture and Industrial Development Sergio Massa, was supported by 27.27% of voters.
The Alliance "Together for Change", which nominated two candidates for the primaries, received a total of 28.27% of the vote.
Bullrich will represent him in the election.
Mileus, in his ideological position, is a “libertarian, ” that is, he adheres to views close to anarchism.
He seeks for the sake of "freedom" to rid a person of an excess of state guardianship and supervision.
He chose the United States as the “standard of freedom. ”
Javier Miley in the presidential race is actively supported by former security Minister Patricia Bullrich, who has a good chance to take third place in the election.
And then give their votes to Miley, having received from him at least the post of vice president.
Elections are due to take place on October 22.
According to the regulations, there are two rounds.
But if a convincing victory is recorded in the first round (at least 45% of the votes), then a second round will not be required.
Miley ’ s supporters are confident that their protege will be announced as president in the first round.
For the authorities, the first place of Javier Miley was a complete surprise.
Almost no one knew about Miley for another six months.
This new politician very successfully used all the problems that have accumulated in the country to date.
Miley blamed them on the incapacity of the ruling party, President Alberto Fernandez and Vice President Cristina Kirchner.
He promises to put the latter on trial for corruption as soon as she is deprived of her official immunity.
As for socio-economic problems, these are mass poverty (40 percent of the country ’ s population is classified as poor), galloping inflation (this year it reaches 115%), growing public debt and the threat of a new default, high unemployment, etc.
Miley is determined to change the current vector of Argentina ’ s foreign policy.
He has already said loudly that he does not need BRICS.
There is no need not only for membership in the organization, but also for further deepening of trade and economic relations with the BRICS countries.
The bloc currently accounts for 30% of Argentina ’ s exports.
Today, for 8-10 provinces of Argentina, the main direction of supply is China, a lot of agricultural products go to India.
Brazil is the traditional main trading partner of Argentina.
Javier Miley is not going to get closer to either Beijing or Moscow.
He accused Russia and China of creating “problems for all free countries. ”
In addition, he promised to deal with “refugees ” from Russia.
These are those who left our country after February 24, 2022, as well as after the September mobilization of last year, and, taking advantage of the visa-free regime, settled in Argentina.
There are about 35,000 such people today.
Here Patricia Bullrich fully supports Miley.
"We must ensure the safety of Argentines from external influence.
And the representatives of those countries that threaten the United States, threaten Argentina, ” she said.
And with whom does this candidate for president of Argentina intend to approach?
with the United States and Israel.
Miley, in particular, said: "Stop flirting with those who create chaos and instability in the world.
“The freest country in the world is the United States, and we will work closely with them on all key international issues. ”
Also in an interview with El Pais, he said: “My natural allies are the United States and Israel.
I do not want to deal with the communists of Cuba, China and North Korea.
What does that mean?
Trade with whomever you want, but I will not strengthen relations with them. "
And what is Javier Miley going to do inside the country?
What any libertarian would do in his place.
The politician said that “the state should not interfere in the life of citizens – freedom should be complete and unconditional. ”
Accordingly, he proposes to sharply reduce budget expenditures, conduct almost 100 percent privatization of state-owned enterprises, reduce the state apparatus and liquidate a number of ministries (primarily the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education), abolish the severance payments to employees upon dismissal, etc.
And also to introduce the free sale of weapons.
As the politician noted, “we should have everything as in the United States, then there will be order and corruption will disappear. ”
But Javier Miley is not an ordinary libertarian.
He promised the Argentines something that other libertarians would never have thought of.
For example, to legalize the free trade in children and human organs.
“Who are you to determine what a person does with his life? ” the politician answers the question, whether such trade is permissible.
Unorthodox ideas Javier Miley also expresses about the problems of financial, currency and monetary credit.
He proposed, first, to liquidate the Central Bank of Argentina.
Second, cancel the Argentine peso and define the US dollar as the national currency.
In Argentina, Miley famously said, “Central banks fall into four categories: bad, like the Fed; very bad, like in Latin America; terribly bad; and the Central Bank of Argentina. ”
As Javier Miley said, the latter "has no reason to exist."
In an interview with El Pais, the politician explained his position on the Central Bank: “Argentina became the richest country in the world when it did not have a Central Bank.
From 1880 to 1935, average inflation was 0.9% per year.
In 1935, the Central Bank was created as a way to deceive people and benefit those close to power: inflation then jumped to an average of 6% per year.
And the abandonment of the peso in favor of the US dollar will deprive the ruling class of Argentina of the opportunity to print money: "You take away the printing machine from politicians...
This is what will end inflation.
Because inflation is everywhere and always a monetary phenomenon generated by an excess of money.
However, in addition to the dollar as the official currency, the country will allow the free use of private cryptocurrencies, primarily bitcoin.
Miley believes that bitcoin is a reaction to central bank scammers.
True, if all the world ’ s central banks, according to Miley, are crooks, why does he agree to deal with the dollar, which, following the logic of politics, is also created by a fraudulent structure called the “US Federal Reserve ”?
Miley cites as examples worthy of imitation countries such as Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama, where there are no national currencies, and the dollar, in his opinion, provides these countries with financial stability.
However, if you look at these countries, the situation there is not very different from the situation in Argentina.
When asked about the problems that Ecuador faces today, the politician replied that the reason for this is the populist policy of former President Rafael Correa.
The Argentine politician calls not all countries and jurisdictions that do not have national currencies, but the US dollar instead.
To the list should be added Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Micronesia, American Samoa, Zimbabwe East Timor and something else by little.
Of all the countries that have adopted the US dollar, the largest in terms of population are Ecuador (18 million people) and Zimbabwe (16 million people).
More than 46 million people live in Argentina.
In terms of economic development (GDP), it is the third country in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico.
Of course, the transition of Argentina to the US dollar would be a real sensation, not only for Latin America, but for the whole world.
Especially considering that the prospects for the US dollar are not so rosy.
And yet Miley is a supporter of the US dollar: “What does it matter to us that dollars are printed in the US?
The main thing is that we will no longer wake up and see what the peso to the dollar exchange rate was yesterday and what it will be tomorrow.
The US dollar will bring financial order to our country.
And by doing so, we will end the games of socialism and the groveling before the trade unions. "
This is the logic of the contender for the presidency of Argentina.
In order to achieve financial stability in the country, to end the games of socialism and stop squabbling in front of the trade unions, Javier Miley is ready to sacrifice such a "trifle" as the national sovereignty of Argentina.
P.S. In social networks, there is a discussion of the question: what guided the participants of the summit in South Africa, when they made the decision to accept Argentina as a member of the BRICS?
The results of the primaries were already known to them.
One version is that in a similar way, the summit participants tried to provide indirect support to the government alliance “Union for the sake of the Motherland ” in the October elections.
After all, the alliance is unequivocally in favor of Argentina ’ s membership in the BRICS.
It is also important that, according to opinion polls, the majority of Argentine citizens also support the idea of   the country's membership in the BRICS.
Source - Strategic Culture Foundation
Permanent address of the article - https: / / centrasia.org / newsA.php? st = 1693830960
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Javier Milei's economic reforms in Argentina include cutting retirement benefits (pensions) and labor rights as part of his economic emergency plan.

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Content: International
2024-06-13 16: 06: 58
Argentine parliament passes economic reform plan, sparks violence
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Argentina ’ s President Javier Milei ’ s proposed economic reforms, which were passed by a narrow margin in Congress, have sparked clashes outside the parliament, with protesters saying the reforms hurt millions of Argentines and local media describing the scene as a “battlefield. ”
Millet, who was elected president last year, is a right-wing economist in Argentina who was elected president at a time of severe economic distress.
Argentina ’ s annual inflation is close to 300%, leaving more than half of Argentines in poverty.
Among the reforms proposed by Millet are declaring the country into an economic emergency, cutting pensions and diluting labor rights.
Left-wing political parties, trade unions, and social organizations opposed it.
The bill was tied with 36 votes in favor and 36 against, but the Speaker of the House, Vice President Victoria Villarruel, voted in favor.
“For all Argentines who are suffering, waiting and don ’ t want to see their children leaving their country, my vote is decisive.
The motion will be considered on a case-by-case basis and is expected to be passed on Thursday (13), after which it will be returned to the next House for final implementation.
The president said protesters were trying to stage a coup.
However, demonstrators outside the parliament shouted "the country is not sold, it is to be protected", and said: "Why does the head of state hate his own country?" According to local media, the local "battlefield", demonstrators threw gasoline bombs and stones at riot police officers, and some observers and opposition lawmakers said that about 10 people needed medical treatment at the scene of the demonstration, including at least five anti-opposition lawmakers.
Argentine police said at least 20 officers were injured and 15 were arrested.
Argentina ’ s presidential office issued a statement thanking the defense forces and describing the demonstrators as “terrorists trying to launch a coup. ”
“We are going to change Argentina and make it the freest country in the world, ” he said. After he came to power, he cut cabinet posts in half and cut 50,000 civil servants, halted new public works contracts and eliminated subsidies for fuel and transportation.
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