Like Margaret Thatcher* on Acid: The world’s first explicitly libertarian head of state is elected in Argentina, Javier Milei

From the outset let us reiterate that Against Crony Capitalism is a place where anyone who has a problem with crony capitalism, right, or left, or anything else, can explore the concept. Anyone who is respectful is welcome here.

Saying that, to be against crony capitalism is to be generally against government benefiting a small (relatively speaking) group at the expense of the taxpayers and people generally. This means that we have a natural skepticism when it comes to things like public/private “partnerships” and vast and expensive government programs. We are less inclined to see the state as benefiting the people, and more inclined toward exploiting the people.

Really, to be against crony capitalism is a disposition.

Javier Milei, the new president of La Argentina, seems to share this disposition.

An economist by vocation and a natural firebrand (he is known affectionately as “the crazy” and “the wig” - affectionately by some anyway) with a deep disdain for the political class and the bankers who have enabled the political class in Argentina, Milei is now a force on the global political scene.

That Milei comes to power in Argentina is particularly interesting because Argentina is in many ways the quintessential cautionary crony tale. Once the richest country in the Western Hemisphere (that’s right, richer than the ole’ US of A), and some believe even the richest in the world per capita for a time, Argentina has suffered a century long decline due primarily to the Peronist political philosophy.

Peronism is basically a pro-crony capitalist philosophy, birthed by former Argentine president Juan Peron, that mixed European fascism, a big dollop of left socialism, with a healthy dose of corporatism. The result? An Argentina that is an economic basket case despite plentiful resources, an educated workforce, and an ideal climate. Over the last one hundred years it has been a slow but continuous slide. (California, are you paying attention?)

Melei has studied this decline and has some ideas (just a few) on how to right the Argentine ship of state.

He believes the Argentine peso should be dollarized. He believes the Argentine central bank should be abolished. And that’s just for starters.

Below he goes through the Argentine government and explains what he wants to cut. It’s in Spanish but you’ll get the point.

He is also a former tantric sex coach.

As his nickname El Loco implies, he is no shrinking violet. He’s more of a screaming hibiscus. Here’s a video (famous in Argentina) where he calls leftists “shit”.

But he is not a rightist, to be clear. Much of the old media is trying to tag him as “far right”. He’s not “far right”. He is a libertarian which is something different. But in some ways the libertarian philosophy stands as a much greater challenge to today’s collectivist and sadly increasingly authoritarian left, than the traditional “right” critique does. Think George W. Bush versus Ron Paul.

In fact Melei even openly calls himself an anarcho-capitalist. He did this and just got elected president. Truly he is a change. Not Obama type “change”. But real change.

Will Milei be a change for the better?

The likely answer is “yes”. Because Argentina is SO crony, SO mired in the economic mud, even modest liberalization of the economy will likely do worlds of good.

But liberalization of an economy (and the associated dismantlement of much of the political system) is tough. There is a reason Argentina has been so crony for so long. There are lots of vested interests grifting and they are not interested in just giving up their long-held privliages. The cronyists will work against Milei at every turn.

We bet that he fully understands this.

Does Mr. Millei’s election represent something bigger globally? Perhaps. The next two years or so will tell. One does feel rumblings in the United States and in Europe these days.

Could Mr. Millei’s presidency go off the rails? Sure, it’s possible, especially when one says that one is going to take a chainsaw to government. Plus it’s Argentina.

We’ll be watching closely.

Below are how some of the world’s leading news outlets are reporting on Milie’s victory. As you will see there are already daggers out for El Loco.

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