There are a lot of reasons to celebrate Javier Milei’s election as president of Argentina, the biggest of which is that he’s going to apply free market, limited government principles to reviving Argentina’s moribund economy.
But he’s also not a fan of communist China.
“People are not free in China, they can’t do what they want and when they do it, they get killed,” he told Bloomberg News on Wednesday, referring to Beijing’s government. “Would you trade with an assassin?”
Milei shook Argentina’s political establishment last weekend after receiving more votes than a probusiness opposition bloc and the ruling Peronist coalition, putting him in the lead to be the country’s next president. His election in October would generate shock waves across a region largely ruled by leftist leaders.
In his blanket refusal to do any kind of business with “socialists,” he lumped Communist China in the same category as Argentina’s biggest trade partner, Brazil, led by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. China is the second-largest buyer of Argentine exports and provides a crucial $18 billion swap line with the central bank that’s being used to pay the International Monetary Fund.
He described his foreign policy proposals as a global “fight against socialists and statists.”
Libertarians critical of communists? What are the odds?
It probably means that Argentina won’t be buying any of China’s crappy jet fighters, either.
Tags: Argentina, China, Communism, Economics, Foreign Policy, Javier Milei, Military
I’m not sure what Argentina could buy on the international weapons market with their atrocious sovereign credit rating anyway. Based on their history of defaults, currency devaluation, inflation, and ever permanently imbalanced trade deficits I’d accept nothing less than bullion as payment.
Next few years will be very interesting, in Argentina. I think that’s about all you can predict, at this point.
“a probusiness opposition bloc”
I’m guessing Argentina’s version of RINO/CoC Republicans? Not so much pro-business as pro-graft and pro-keeping-any-competition-down?
@R C Dean
It’s already come out Milei has WEF connections. He’s already started backpeddling on some of his campaign promises and statements of conviction too.
It’s a big club and we’re not in it is pretty true everywhere that’s not the United States as well.
“I’m not sure what Argentina could buy on the international weapons market with their atrocious sovereign credit rating anyway. Based on their history of defaults, currency devaluation, inflation, and ever permanently imbalanced trade deficits I’d accept nothing less than bullion as payment.”
Argentina typically runs a 20%+ goods trade surplus amounting to about $ 15 billion per year:
https://wits.worldbank.org/countrysnapshot/en/ARG
Their balance of payments is negative due to very large IMF loan rollovers (loans originally contracted by the Peronistas) to subsidize outsized government operations:
https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2022/03/25/pr2289-argentina-imf-exec-board-approves-extended-arrangement-concludes-2022-article-iv-consultation
Milei can fix this by starving the outsized Argentine government sector.
“…Milei has WEF connections.”
I have connections to Cleopatra: she bathed in the Nile River, which flowed to the Mediterranean Sea. From there, evaporation formed clouds, which drifted aloft and were carried to North America.
There, it rained and added to the area water table. I drew this water from my well to my hot water tank. I used the hot water to bathe, like Cleopatra. She and I are immersed in the same bath water!
And so, you see, I have Cleopatrian connections.
“Their balance of payments is negative due to very large IMF loan rollovers (loans originally contracted by the Peronistas) to subsidize outsized government operations:..”
Defaulting on these loans is essential. Tax funds that are being used to service this debt can be reallocated, allowing tax rates to be reduced. Of course this means that future IMF loans will dry up but this ought to be perceived as a benefit because past loans were used primarily to prop up Peronista socialism.
Argentina has gobs of silver mines. This extracted ore can furnish the basis of a currency reissue that dramatically reduces central bank monetary inflation and provides for a solid medium of exchange going forward.
In one blow you cripple socialism, eliminate any need for a central bank to issue fiat currency and provide for a comparatively stable currency environment that makes economic activity predictable and reliable.
Milei has stated he wants to move to the US dollar as a national currency.
@Malthus
I’m sorry mentioning the WEF rubs you the wrong way. Unfortunately they’re all too real and so is their horrific agenda for you and the rest of humanity, and anyone even remotely connected to them and their new world order agenda should get additional scrutiny.
Not even Cleopatra was as corrupt and vindictive as those monsters.
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