Milei's Argentina continues turnaround, Lessons for the world

There is pain as Milei dismantles the crony capitalist state, But more importantly there is now hope where there was little

"There is no magic, real life needs time." - Javier Milei

For most people economics is mysterious. It is a world of magic. For many the Federal Reserve Committee (if they know what it is) is as close to a tribunal of wizards as exists in this world. The Eccles Building (if they know what it is - by the way it’s parked right next to the White House but way harder to get into) is a temple where brilliant, wise minds control the levers of the world’s economy. Economics is inaccessible. It is something that even the well educated but not economically inclined can never hope to really understand.

Bull.

Economics is the study of supply and demand. (At least that’s how we see it.) Supply and demand are concepts that the typical eighth grader can understand. (Even in today’s public schools.)

But many economists insist that economics is not fundamentally this simple, and that their priesthood alone can decipher real economic truth.

More bull.

Part of the problem can be seen in this blurb from Investopedia.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 38% of all economists in the United States work for a federal or state agency. Economists are also employed as consultants, professors, by corporations, or as part of economic think tanks.

38% of economists work for government. No wonder so many economists so often sing the praises of government intervention.

Don’t get us wrong. Economists can serve an important purpose in the world. Their expertise can be extremely valuable. Sometimes they even get things right.

But there is a serious bias within modern economics toward making things as opaque as possible because, and no one will say this out loud, it is in this opacity that the money is made.

Your editor is no economist. I write about economics (and other things). But over the years I have learned a thing or two about economists, in Washington particularly. These guys just love running economic models.

They adore them. Models are supposed to be windows into the future. They are the computerized sacrament of the profession.

Models are at times valuable tools, particularly in the very short to short term and in very specific areas of the economy like, say, oil. But often these windows into the future are not that.

Whatever. Let’s just say that economists, many mainstream economists anyway, particularly the ones who still hold to the Keynesian faith, are inclined toward government meddling with the economy when less meddling or even NO government meddling is the actual solution. But these folks want to maintain their positions of power along with their paychecks and no one can blame them, we suppose, for wanting that.

Every once in a while there is an economist who makes the case for relatively simple market reality and kid gloves government who gains noteriety. It happens. Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, Friedman come to mind.

Usually the old guard sneers at the heretic(s) in The New York Times.

Even rarer is a politician who can directly take on the big government economists. Ron Paul was one. Javier Milei is another, and Milei is a head of state who is turning Argentina, a country deeply infected with crony capitalism around.