Argentina shows the way?

 

All the evidence available so far points to Argentinian president Javier Milei's policies as being a major success story.

Okay, it is still only on a par with Egypt and Suriname. But the credit ratings agency Moody’s this week gave Argentina its second upgrade since its radical libertarian president Javier Milei took power.

It is yet more evidence of the dramatic improvement in the country’s fortunes. Growth has accelerated, inflation is coming under control, rents are falling and its debts are steadily becoming more manageable.

The dire warnings from the economic establishment that Milei’s bold experiment in slashing the burden of the state have been proved woefully wide of the mark.

The only question now is this: when will the rest of the world wake up to the Argentinian miracle?

. . .

One point is surely clear, however: in the 18 months since Milei took office, Argentina’s economy has been transformed.

It has been achieved by radically slashing the size of the state. Promising a “shock therapy” for the economy, the government has laid off more than 50,000 public sector workers, closed or merged more than 100 state departments and agencies, frozen public infrastructure projects, cut energy and transport subsidies, and even returned the state budget to a surplus.

. . .

The bulk of the policy-making and financial establishment still inhabits a mental universe where government spending is what drives growth, where regulation is seen as the key to innovation, where “national champions” are expected to lead new industries, while industrial strategies will pick the winners of the future, and the only role for the private sector is a “partner” for the finance ministry.

. . .

Argentina under Javier Milei is the only major country taking a different path. Perhaps because subsidies, controls and protectionism have turned it into a basket-case, it was ready to try the alternative.

The results are now clear. In reality, open, free markets and a smaller state are the only way to restore growth, and Milei is proving it all over again.

Moody’s and some of the other credit rating agencies have started to notice – and one day perhaps voters and politicians in the rest of the world will notice as well.

There's more at the link.

One sees a similar reaction on the part of the Left to President Trump's financial policies.  All around us, we see financial "experts" and economic "authorities" moan and wail about how things are really terrible, and the economy's bound to implode, and we'll regret voting for an economically illiterate person.  Yet, our own eyes show us that at least some sectors of the economy are improving, and hundreds of thousands of government bureaucrats have been fired, and tariffs are, indeed, increasing US income rather than devastating it.

Personally, I'm looking forward to Act II of the economic roadshow, both in Argentina and in America.  I think it may be a lot more positive than the "experts" would have us believe.

Peter