World headlines have been full of news of the “radical/right-wing” libertarian who won Argentina’s primary vote for President, Javier Milei. Most of the news focuses on his proposal to close the Argentine central bank, and switch the country to using US dollars followed by bits and pieces of the rest of his policy agenda, all to show he’s a bit crazy, and would crash the economy.
This is a very well written piece. I think the key thing to remember is that Argentina is just in a terrible economically and politically. As you talked about, its inflation is just completely nuts, and some radical changes to need to happen to its economy to stablize its currency; dollarization is a pretty good option imo. However, I think it's a little unfornuate that an "anarcho-capitalist" is the only one that is willing to do it. Strict idealogues are generally bad news for a country, and anyone who considers themselves an "anarcho" anything should be keep as far away from power as possible. Argentina is essentially forced to choose between that and more of the same 'Peronist' economics that has rotted their economy.
Hey, maybe Millei will embrace pragmatism and suprise me, or otherwise be constrained in his efforts to implement by Argentina's political system. Maybe he even has the magic fix to Argentina's woes. But as for now, I'm not looking forward to Argentina's next election.
Thanks for your thoughts and comments Dylan. Yeah... that's why I didn't want to touch on the political side of it. I really don't know anything about Milei other than what I read and the idea to dollarize is an old one supported by many economists with a wide range of political views. Sometimes it's also bad when a fringe person promotes a good idea because afterwards no one wants to use the policy because of the person who most prominently promoted it.
Thanks for reading, thinking and commenting... I really appreciate it.
Thanks. That's an excellent point. Again, it was done for slightly different reason, namely to join the Euro area versus because the local country had 200% inflation or something. But very good point. Thanks and thanks for reading
I don't even think it sounds crazy from a European perspective. There's already half a dozen European countries that have adopted EUR without being EU members.
This is a very well written piece. I think the key thing to remember is that Argentina is just in a terrible economically and politically. As you talked about, its inflation is just completely nuts, and some radical changes to need to happen to its economy to stablize its currency; dollarization is a pretty good option imo. However, I think it's a little unfornuate that an "anarcho-capitalist" is the only one that is willing to do it. Strict idealogues are generally bad news for a country, and anyone who considers themselves an "anarcho" anything should be keep as far away from power as possible. Argentina is essentially forced to choose between that and more of the same 'Peronist' economics that has rotted their economy.
Hey, maybe Millei will embrace pragmatism and suprise me, or otherwise be constrained in his efforts to implement by Argentina's political system. Maybe he even has the magic fix to Argentina's woes. But as for now, I'm not looking forward to Argentina's next election.
Thanks for your thoughts and comments Dylan. Yeah... that's why I didn't want to touch on the political side of it. I really don't know anything about Milei other than what I read and the idea to dollarize is an old one supported by many economists with a wide range of political views. Sometimes it's also bad when a fringe person promotes a good idea because afterwards no one wants to use the policy because of the person who most prominently promoted it.
Thanks for reading, thinking and commenting... I really appreciate it.
Thanks. That's an excellent point. Again, it was done for slightly different reason, namely to join the Euro area versus because the local country had 200% inflation or something. But very good point. Thanks and thanks for reading
I don't even think it sounds crazy from a European perspective. There's already half a dozen European countries that have adopted EUR without being EU members.