In December 2023, Argentine President Javier Milei swept into power with a decisive victory. The right-wing libertarian captured the attention of global media with his wild antics (like wielding a chainsaw at rallies) and colourful history (this is a man who was a tantric sex coach, fronted a Rolling Stones cover band, and cloned his dogs). But more importantly, he captured the imagination of Argentine voters by promising a break from years of economic despair and political scandal.
At first, Milei’s massive public spending cuts and deregulation worked like gangbusters, and it looked like his unique brand of libertarian policy and populist rhetoric could serve as a model for other right-wing politicians to emulate.
But more recently, economic gains have started to falter, progress on taming inflation has stalled, and public opinion is souring as the pain of Milei's cuts is felt by a growing number of Argentines. As of the most recent polling, his approval rating sits around a dismal 35%.
All of this invites the question: What, if anything, can we learn from the complicated track record of Milei’s radical economic experiment?
The first thing to understand is that the political economy of Argentina is very strange. “Argentine economics doesn't function like it does everywhere else in the world,” says James Bosworth, a political analyst specializing in Latin American politics who writes the Substack Latin America Risk Report. “I've often said he gets graded on a curve because what he inherited was over 100% inflation, a massive recession, and a country that has gone through two centuries’ worth of boom-bust cycles. I think it's had eight or nine defaults over 200 years.”
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