First Year of Javier Milei's Economic "Miracle": Plunging Inflation, Surging Poverty, Rising Inequality and Slumping Ind [View all]

First Year of Javier Milei’s Economic “Miracle”: Plunging Inflation, Surging Poverty, Rising Inequality and Slumping Industry

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Nick Corbishley
“The deep chainsaw is coming” in the second year.

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After a year in power, Argentina’s faux libertarian President Javier Milei may not have burnt down the country’s central bank or dollarised Argentina’s economy, as he repeatedly promised he would do on the campaign trail. Nor did he get rid of taxes; in fact they went up sharply. But he has kept his word on one of his main pledges by unleashing the figurative motosierra (chainsaw) on government spending. And support for his government is still strong.

Despite having implemented the largest financial adjustment in Argentina in over 60 years, with excruciating effects for many of the country’s most vulnerable sectors, Milei’s approval numbers are, bizarrely, the best in the first year of any president since 2001. As the Argentine journalist Ernesto Tenembaum writes, “something very profound has happened in Argentina’s society for this to be happening.”

Milei has promised more of the same for the year ahead. “The deep chainsaw is coming,” he warned during a celebration of his first year in office. This new chainsaw, he said, will be all about “dismantling geological layers of statism” through the elimination of public agencies, secretaries and undersecretaries.

“The Biggest Budget Adjustment in Human History”

In one year, Javier Milei has abolished half of Argentina’s existing ministries, fired 33,000 civil servants and slashed public spending by 35% compared to the previous year. To achieve what he likes to describe as “the biggest budget adjustment in human history,” the Argentine president has cut pensions, social benefits, public sector salaries, and transportation and energy subsidies. He has also suspended all public works and minimized transfers of resources to the provinces.

More:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/12/the-first-year-of-javier-mileis-economic-miracle-plunging-inflation-surging-poverty-slumping-industry.html