I’m surprised there’s been so little interest in this on social media generally and fm specifically. Perhaps that’s just a reflection of how unimportant Argentina is on the world stage these days.
I’ve had a few videos of Milei pop up in my youtube feed and I honestly can’t figure the guy out. He apparently describes himself as ‘anarcho-capitalist’, which is not the same thing as ‘right wing’ or ‘conservative’, and his stated policies seem to match that description. This is the first time in modern history that someone with such views has been elected to high office, AFAIK, so it’ll be truly interesting to see how it pans out. I doubt it’s going to result in anything good. But since Argentina is already a basket-case, it’s also quite hard to see how he could make anything worse.
I saw some commentator suggest that it will make not one jot of difference, because the Civil Service, and a good fraction of society at large, is still steeped in Peronism/socialism. That seems a reasonable prediction.
Someone else took the position that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, arguing that because he’s going to take an aggressive stand against Woke nonsense, he’s an ally regardless of any other policies he might have. Not so sure about that, although I agree that Wokeness/Communism is becoming a problem big enough to threaten the fabric of civilisation.
I can’t help wondering if Milei is just another ‘chaos agent’ put there by TPTB to achieve some longer-term goal, which requires the complete collapse of existing institutions before the Great Leap Forward can be put into high gear.
I think you’ve answered your own question about the lack of interest. Argentina is such a basket case that nothing Milei could possibly do will make a bit of difference. The country is basically unfixable. A key part of his platform is dollarizing the Argentine economy. Yeah, good luck with that.
Expect big things out of Argentina. Not good things, but big things!
Sloppy socialism and fascism abound. But Milei doesn’t have the votes to get much done domestically.
Foreign policy though is a bit different. Southern trade is dead in the water. BRICS thing is a no go with Milei because of his dislike of China.
EU trade deal may be worked out but Milei asked for a billion dollar bribe to get it done ( I haven’t kept up, so IDK what this is all about) so it’s probably dead i the water too.
Will he fail in a number of areas? Sure. Is he better than the leftist Peronists that have run it for the last 70 years give or take a few years? Or the military junta? God ya. Elon Musk on X: “https://t.co/Vhti19Kihk” / X (twitter.com)
Peron and his wife a fascist? I don’t think Madonna would be singing their praises if that were so. The clientelism that Peron introduced, the cronyism, etc. turned it from an economic dynamic country to a basket case. And he married trailer trash on the way. It was mostly leftist but 100 percent Banana Republic.
While Caputo’s measure to bring the official exchange rate far closer to the “blue dollar” is the correct step to have taken, Ecuador’s experience suggests that, when getting rid of a national currency, it is far better to act sooner rather than later. Indeed, delaying Argentina’s dollarization may not be as prudent an option as many now think.
If he dislikes China maybe he should allow visa free travel for Taiwanese passport holders. Argentina’s visa is extremely difficult to obtain and they demand financial proof … as if any Taiwanese would want to stay in a country in such economic mayhem one second longer than necessary.
It is easier now but it used to be very difficult, and you still have to pay $200 which is outrageous.
And it’s not reciprocal. Argentine citizens need a visa to enter USA, Canada and Australia but Americans, Canadians and Australians don’t need a visa to enter Argentina.
Reciprocal visa policy is very rare. Brazil’s visa policy used to be fully reciprocal but they changed it too.
It is true that Taiwan’s visa policy is more strict compared to Korea, Singapore and Japan (esp. Singapore which will allow Chinese passport holders visa free entry soon, talk about stupid), but it is also true that poor countries like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa etc. don’t allow Taiwanese visa-free entry because they listen to China. The most ironic part is that they often demand financial proof when these countries are all much poorer.
You can go to Chile, we allow 3-month visa-free entry for Taiwanese tourists (and it’s reciprocal!). I know the people at the TECO in case you need more information.
It was mostly leftist but 100 percent Banana Republic.
