8 ms·
Deregulation in Argentina: Milei Takes "Deep Chainsaw" to Bureaucracy
- Bostonian 2y agoSummarized and discussed at https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/03/argentinas-doge.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/03/ar...
- piva00 2y agoCharles Koch libertarian think tank believes Milei's libertarian views are correct. There's not really much of substance to take from blatant biased opinion reviews of public policy, you will accept or reject it purely based on how your views already align.
- greenie_beans 2y agocrazy how they just act like kansas's austerity failure never happened
- piva00 2y agoCato ignores a lot of failures coming from austerity or deregulation initiatives, they are literally a paid mouthpiece for the world view Koch-adjacent folks have, they do not exist to provide comprehensive analysis of benefits and failures of deregulation. They solely exist to push the view regulation = bad, even to the point of a dualspeak-esque attempt to put freedom and regulation completely at odds. I do not understand who can read Cato's opinion pieces and believe it might have something substantial to be said, if you subscribe to libertarianism there are much better intellectual works to provide you arguments.
- weberer 2y ago>if you subscribe to libertarianism there are much better intellectual works to provide you arguments Got any examples?
- piva00 2y agoEven if I don't subscribe to their views, Kevin Carson, and Gary Chartier have the non-right wing form of libertarianism put up for discussion, instead of this Ayn Rand/Milton Friedman corporatist view of libertarianism.
- Jgrubb 2y agoIt's funny to think that a modern version of Crassus would start a think tank and name it Cato.
- ryandamm 2y agoAs of right now, the comments on the Marginal Revolution blog are rather telling. Generally agreeing that the two situations are not remotely the same.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoWhich is saying a lot, because the commenters on the Marginal Revolution blog are generally far to the right of the posters to that blog.
- Panzer04 2y agoArgentina's government has been a disaster for a century. It's not at all surprising to me that reining in government spending in an economy that has had 4? Defaults over the past few decades will result in an improvement.
- piva00 2y agoI'm very aware of it, growing up in Brazil an Argentinian crisis was on the news every couple of years. I'm not saying anything about the Argentinian government, I do feel something like Milei was bound to happen. I wished it never needed to be so drastic but that's just my humane side showing some bias, they needed a shock to get out of the eternal crisis. What I'm criticising is using Cato Institute's mouthpieces as an analysis of it, as if it were a model to be followed, and using this rather peculiar societal issue as a pillar to the ideas the think tank tries to push all the time, it's just blatant libertarian propaganda.
- TFYS 2y agoSeems like they've tried this before with little success. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Argentina#Convertibility_Plan_(1991%E2%80%932002) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Argentina#...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ryandamm 2y agoBefore anyone starts comparing to the US’s DOGE, let it be said that the two countries have virtually nothing in common economically. Argentina has a nearly century-long history of economic volatility alternated with stagnation, massive inflation crises, a spell of military dictatorship (after a flirtation with fascism)… Wait a second… (In all seriousness, Argentina is truly unique. As economists say, there are only four kinds of economies in the world: developed, developing, Japan, and Argentina.)
- ryandamm 2y agoOr to put it another way: extreme steps were probably required in Argentina to tackle a truly hidebound, rentier-dominated and corruption riddled government. Inflation expectations were strong and justified. Government deficits were out of control. And the population was truly ready to bear some pain for the sake of reform. (Source: My guide in Argentina this past November; Milei’s approval rating has stayed high despite economic contraction.) Argentina is what Trump’s team imagines the US to be. They’re not the same. EDIT: fixed some typos.
- lezojeda 2y ago>Inflation expectations were strong and justified. Government deficits were out of control. And the population was truly ready to bear some pain for the sake of reform We went from 25% inlation where prices changed every single week to discussing whether the government will be able to lower inlation from a monthly 2% (still high, o course). The goal post was moved but I'm just glad not to have prices change every week, it was complete madness. And the 2% is the average, of course, you can find some prices the same as they were 2 months ago.
- ryandamm 2y agoWould love to hear more from Argentinians! Thank you for your perspective.
- adamtaylor_13 2y agoWhy aren’t they the same? They look the same to me.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ryandamm 2y agoThe money quote to me (as an American): “Milei has implemented these reforms legally and constitutionally...”
- Panzer04 2y agoIf this were stated for many countries it would be cause for concern, and it certainly draws parallels to the US - but Argentina's economy has been a disaster forever, and regularly suffers from huge hyperinflation and government defaults. It seems much easier to justify the argument for radical government cuts and austerity in this environment.
- weberer 2y ago>That facilitated more disciplined monetary policy and the reduction of inflation from 25 percent per month when the president came to office to 2.2 percent in January 2025. 25% is ridiculously high even for a yearly inflation rate. But to have it monthly means the value of the currency halves every 3 months. I thought there must have been a typo somewhere, but sure enough, that is the correct value. https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/inflation-rate-mom https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/inflation-rate-mom
- ryandamm 2y agoIt has been significantly higher in the recent past. For fun, look up how Brazil tamed inflation by creating a fake currency it never actually issued. (Taking off so no time to look it up myself.)
- gus_massa 2y agoProbably "How Fake Money Saved Brazil" http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake... A few old discussions with 800 comments in total https://hn.algolia.com/?q=How+Fake+Money+Saved+Brazil https://hn.algolia.com/?q=How+Fake+Money+Saved+Brazil After some time, they actually issued the bills of the new fake money that magically got real (pun fully intended). Here in Argentina we had almost simultaneity the "Convertibility Plan" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convertibility_plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convertibility_plan <voice="Mingo"> One (AR)Peso equal to One (US)Dollar</voice>. It was successful to reduce the inflation but it was hard to drop the peg later and it caused a lot of problems. The current government is "crawling peg", of 2% reduced recently to 1%, so people does not get attached to a magic number. (It may be brilliant or a disaster, we will know in 10 years.)
- piva00 2y agoI lived in Brazil during hyperinflation, and the transition to the Real. During that time we would go buy groceries at the first moment after a paycheck, filling up carts to last as long as possible because prices would be changing not just every day but a few times a day, grocery stores would employ people whose only job was to remark prices on the shelves in the morning, afternoon, and evening. At the time I don't think many people believed that yet another currency change (we had gone through the Cruzado, to Cruzado novo, to Cruzeiro, to Cruzeiro real in a span of 8 years) would solve it, I was too young to understand the plan and it just felt like another annoying swap of currency I needed to do. The URV (real unity of value) was this abstract thing we could use as benchmark against the previous currency (Cruzeiro real) and the new one being introduced (Real, the one living to this day), the more sweeping changes were broad fiscal reforms, and removing the stupid indexation between prices and wages.
- rmholt 2y agoI wonder if the memecoin promotion helps the Argentinian economy at all https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=milei-memecoin-promotion https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=milei-memecoin-promotio...
- oblio 2y agoWatch this if you can: https://youtu.be/E7MzfNTSk4A?si=DRLFJ-yQ2lOVgL9J https://youtu.be/E7MzfNTSk4A?si=DRLFJ-yQ2lOVgL9J Great insight into the situation from a professional economist, his videos are based on academic research but presented in an approachable manner.
- owenmakes 2y agoDon't. The video misses out on a lot of key facts from previous governments.
- throw0101c 2y ago1. It's hard to fit a hundred-year history of a country in a twenty minute video. 2. Are there certain "key facts" that should have been brought up even in the limited allotted time that you can bring up here/now?
- gus_massa 2y agoIn particular, during from early 2007 to late 2015 the inflation index and other economical indicator were cooked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_of_Statistics_and_Census_of_Argentina#Controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_of_Statisti... , so a lot of the grow during that period is not real. Also from 2011 we have an official dollar exchange that is like 30% less than the black market one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_currency_controls_(2011%E2%80%932015) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_currency_controls_(2... Note it was lifted in 2015 but it started again in 2019 (It's explained near the bottom, but I can't find a specific article.) This inflated the GDP. We ever cheated in the Big Mac index!
- stefantalpalaru 2y ago[dead]
- LittleTimothy 2y agoI find the Libertarian obsession with Argentina quite curious. There seems to be this view that Argentina is massively over-regulated with massive government and that if you strip that all away Argentina will be a power house of productivity and wealth. The problem I have with that is... that's not libertarianism. Thinking that Argentina should be regulated and taxed a bit more in line with a modern liberal European democracy is not a demonstration of the successes of Libertarians. I would think that the libertarian would be far better pointing at a low regulation, low tax economy and demonstrating how reduced regulations would help there. Maybe for example, take the US banking regulations and strip them away - if the libertarians are right, we'll see a boom lifting all boats. If they're wrong we'll see a string of notorious and massive scams ripping of the average American. Unfortunately that'll never happen so I guess we'll never know.
- cs702 2y agoEconomic conditions in Argentina were exceptionally horrible before Milei, and now they are... ordinarily bad. It looks like progress! Alas, I'm always a bit skeptical of any piece published by the Cato Institute, because it is not exactly an impartial source. The Cato Institute always advocates for lower taxes, less government, fewer business regulations, fewer consumer protections, and fewer restrictions on personal behavior. Always, regardless of the specifics. When it comes to economic policies, I prefer to see pragmatism over ideology. If something works, do it; if it stops working, stop doing it. In the words of Lee Kuan Yew, who led the transformation of Singapore from one of the poorest to one of the wealthiest societies on earth: > My life is not guided by philosophy or theories. I get things done and leave others to extract the principles from my successful solutions. I do not work on a theory. Instead, I ask: what will make this work? If, after a series of solutions, I find that a certain approach worked, then I try to find out what was the principle behind the solution. So Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, I am not guided by them…I am interested in what works…Presented with the difficulty or major problem or an assortment of conflicting facts, I review what alternatives I have if my proposed solution does not work. I choose a solution which offers a higher probability of success, but if it fails, I have some other way. Never a dead end. > We were not ideologues. We did not believe in theories as such. A theory is an attractive proposition intellectually. What we faced was a real problem of human beings looking for work, to be paid, to buy their food, their clothes, their homes, and to bring their children up…I had read the theories and maybe half believed in them. > But we were sufficiently practical and pragmatic enough not to be cluttered up and inhibited by theories. If a thing works, let us work it, and that eventually evolved into the kind of economy that we have today. Our test was: does it work? Does it bring benefits to the people?…The prevailing theory then was that multinationals were exploiters of cheap labor and cheap raw materials and would suck a country dry…Nobody else wanted to exploit the labor. So why not, if they want to exploit our labor? They are welcome to it…. We were learning how to do a job from them, which we would never have learnt… We were part of the process that disproved the theory of the development economics school, that this was exploitation. We were in no position to be fussy about high-minded principles. Source: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262019124 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262019124 --- Note: I'm not sure why the OP is flagged. It meets HN criteria.
- ako 2y agoAt the same time poverty is soaring: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/09/nx-s1-5280631/argentinas-recent-economic-growth-has-come-at-the-cost-of-the-countrys-poor https://www.npr.org/2025/02/09/nx-s1-5280631/argentinas-rece...
- bitshiftfaced 2y agoFrom your article (dated Feb 9th), > POLITI: That's right. Under Milei, the poverty rate increased to more than 50%. An even more shocking statistic is that 6 in 10 children live in poverty. From topic's article, > and the poverty rate, after having initially risen, has fallen below the 40 percent range that the previous government left as part of its legacy.
- cess11 2y agoTax to GDP ratio in Argentina before Milei was below OECD average, presumably cut down further now, and the country will go into debt with the IMF anyway. Aren't the Kochs big on fossil fuels? Surprising the article doesn't mention what Milei aims for in that area, or the Atlas Network connections they have to him.
- throw0101c 2y agoThe Money & Macro channel went over the economic history of Argentina recently: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7MzfNTSk4A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7MzfNTSk4A Milei seems to be part of a regular pattern of swinging back and forth between economic extremes. The author of the video/channel is skeptical that this latest round will do much in the long term (previously things 'worked' in the short term before going off the rails). (I don't have the knowledge/expertise to judge his analysis, but some of the history/context was interesting.)
- todoesverso 2y agoMost of the data in the article is totalmente false