THE GUARDIAN: The wild politics and chainsaw made Argentina’s president an economic hero for the right. And now, with his nation’s finances in chaos: silence
So you really want to know how Prime Minister Farage would pan out? Well, speculate no longer. An excellent test case is unfolding right now, in a country that just so happens to be run by one of Nigel’s heroes. Javier Milei is “amazing”, said the CEO of the private company he calls Reform. “Cutting and slashing … doing all the things he’s done … that’s leadership.”
You may know some of this story, about how a political outsider took power in Argentina. You’ve seen photos of El Loco, the self-styled madman, in a black leather jacket, with sideburns like hedges and wielding a giant red chainsaw – all the better to slash the public sector with.
Taking over Latin America’s second-largest country made Milei the poster boy of the international hard right. Elon Musk: “I love Javier Milei.” Kemi Badenoch: “Javier Milei is the template.” Donald Trump: “My favourite president.” In office, he was lionised by Wall Street and the international commentariat. Milei’s economy was declared by no lesser sage than Niall Ferguson as a “man-made miracle”.
Yet over the past few weeks, Argentina has gone into freefall. Investors have yanked billions out of the country, and the peso has dropped like a stone. A few days ago Trump was forced to pledge $20bn (£15bn) to prop up his friend, in addition to a rescue loan from the IMF. Later this month, Milei faces midterm elections that will serve as a referendum on his presidency and the results are expected to be bad. “We are seeing in real time how a government can melt in front of our eyes,” Alejandro Bercovich, a leading Argentine TV and radio journalist told me this week. “I never thought they would collapse this quickly.” » | Aditya Chakrabortty | Thursday, October 2, 2025
My regular visitors will surely remember that I stated loud and clear from day one that Javier Milei’s stupid experiment with anarcho-capitalism would fail. And my words are coming true very quickly.
You cannot run an economy as you run a business. The skills needed to run a business are totally different from the skills needed to run an economy. Intelligent, well-educated leaders and politicians should know this, but clearly many of them do not.
There is a simple reason why a businessman’s skills and a politician’s skills are very different, and it is simple to understand: the goal for a successful businessman is always profit; the goal of a good political leader should always be a successful economy run for the benefit of ALL the nation’s citizens. A nation’s leader is not doing his job properly if some of the citizens are living in the lap of luxury whilst others are going to bed at night hungry. When that happens, the leader has FAILED, regardless of how well the nation’s economy is doing on the international stage.
We need look no further than America for a lesson in how NOT to run an economy! Trump is trying to run the US using the business skills he boasts of possessing. And we can all see the mess that he has created. He has failed. And in Argentina, Javier Milei will also fail, I’m sorry to say. If I am not greatly mistaken, Milei’s reckless experiment in anarcho-capitalism will end in pain, misery, and tears for the masses. — © Mark Alexander
