Patrick Boyle

Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei describes himself as an anarcho- capitalist and says he will take a chainsaw to the Argentine economy. He has campaigned that he will dollarize the economy and shut down the central bank.  What does this mean and could it work?

Argentina mostly exports agricultural commodities but used to be one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Decades of economic mismanagement have destroyed the economy and created a web of artificial price and exchange rate controls that have produced huge distortions.

Milei is described as a libertarian economist whose ideological heroes are Milton Friedman, Robert Lucas, Murray Rothbard and Margaret Thatcher.

Milei campaigned on promises of taking a chainsaw to the state, closing down the central bank and replacing the peso with the US dollar. But he has made a dramatic shift towards moderation since winning the election.