Apocalypse Then

Argentina emerges from the ashes to reclaim the torch of liberty...

(Source: Getty Images)

“The sun had shifted round, and the myriad windows of the Ministry of Truth, with the light no longer shining on them, looked grim as the loopholes of a fortress.”

~ Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell

Joel Bowman, with today’s Note From the End of the World...

Well, here we are... almost three months into the “Greatest Political Experiment of Our Time.” Curious readers want to know: 

How’s it looking down here in sunny “An-Capistan?” 

Surely the economy has imploded by now... the nation’s Congreso blown to smithereens... the streets surrendered to gangs of Mad Max-styled looters, who casually while away the summer days, raping and pillaging their way through the charred remains of the scorched countryside...

Such were the anguished presentiments of the chattering class last November, when political outsider Javier Milei won the nation’s presidency… by the widest margin in any election since Argentina was returned to democracy over 40 years ago. 

Freed from the ravages of Peronism, which had choked off economic growth for nigh on three generations, Chicken Littles in the Progressive Press Corps. dutifully assumed the worst was ahead.

A Boot in the Face

Never mind that a victory for the Peronist candidate, Milei’s rival, would have all but guaranteed just that. The “ultra-right libertarian,” as directionally challenged pundits labeled Milei, was going to consolidate government power, declare himself El Dictador and stomp his jackboot firmly on the face of humanity... forever. 

Here, a smattering of headlines, for your recollection...

‘Extremely worrying’: Argentinian researchers reel after election of anti-science president ~ moaned Nature

Argentina’s election result is the worst of all possible outcomes ~ wailed The Economist

Javier Milei Is the World’s Latest Wannabe Fascist ~ lamented Foreign Policy

Parsing the news at the time, one recalled the dystopian description at the end of Orwell’s famous novel, 1984: 

“There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always— do not forget this, Winston— always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.”

Grim stuff, to be sure. And yet, fast-forward ~90 days and... where are we? Reading from a different book entirely, it would seem...

The Chainsaw, So Far…

After taking his trademark chainsaw to the administrative state – shuttering ~50% of the federal government’s parasitic ministries and sacking tens of thousands of “gnocchis” (useless, bottom-feeding bureaucrats) – Sr. Milei’s administration has so far...

• Delivered the first monthly budget surplus (of $589 million) in twelve years...

• Slowed rampant inflation... from 25.1% in December...to 20.6% in January... to an estimated ~14.5% in February (according to estimates from private consultancy firm Equilibra)...

• Announced a bill to criminalize seigniorage – printing money to fund government boondoggles and vote-buying programs... and to jail crooked politicians found doing so to fund the Treasury for political purposes...

• Eliminated at least 9 separate fiduciary funds (slush funds for corrupt politicians)...

• Deregulated health insurance...

• Confirmed he will indeed dollarize the economy, as proposed during the presidential campaign (the central bank has accumulated US$9 billion of reserves under Milei’s watch thus far)...

International capital markets have responded to Milei’s fiscal and monetary reforms down here on the Pampas with a massive vote of confidence, pushing Argentine stocks higher and sending the risk index (as measured by JP Morgan) to its lowest levels in 30-months. Year-to-date, Argentine bonds have rallied by as much as 30%.

Meanwhile, the man they call “El Leon” (The Lion) shows no signs of fatigue. Along with sweeping economic reforms, the “anti-woke” presidente has let the motosierra loose on the vast and thorny bramble of cultural Marxism that strangles the nation’s institutions, from state-sponsored media to the fetid swamp of collectivist ideology running through the academies. 

Bad News

In his historic address before Congress last Friday night, Milei announced the imminent closure of TELAM, the government’s long-standing Propaganda Ministry, which was nationalized by the military dictator, Juan Carlos Onganía, back in 1968 and which Milei identified as one of the myriad government agencies bleeding money and essentially serving “no purpose.”

Yesterday morning, jilted propagandists arrived at “work” to find the TELAM offices fenced off and the doors locked. The agency’s website was also down, with the “under construction” sign doing more work than the government-paid staff had done in living memory. 

Last year alone, the state-funded agency suffered losses of 20 billion pesos ($23 million), while hemorrhaging readership share to private competition. Those who called the closure an “attack on freedom of the press,” had trouble explaining why private news outlets were left untouched. 

Hmm, here’s a clue: 

The leading news outlet in the country, Infoabae, today has 26 million readers and 340 employees. La Nacion, the second largest, has 20 million readers and 300 employees. Third comes Todo Noticias, with 13 million readers and 303 employees. 

Before Team Milei took TELAM out behind the shed and filled its cranium with lead, the pitiable beast had a paltry 200 thousand readers... and 770 employees. More than twice the payroll as Infobae, in other words…with barely 1/130th of the readership! 

Why, exactly, should Argentine taxpayers be forced to subsidize such abject failure, especially, as Sr. Milei unambiguously declared in his inauguration speech those few short months ago, “No hay plata” (There is no money)? 

If El Señor’s vulturine opponents were hoping to snare a tasty morsel of weakness, of hesitation, of doubt during last Friday’s speech... they went home with empty stomachs. 

“We are on two paths...” Milei warned his opponents, in no uncertain terms. “If you choose confrontation, you will find a different animal than the one you have seen so far.” 

The president then reached out to allies and enemies alike, offering cooperation on a 10-point Social Contract – the so-called “Pacto de Mayo” – and warning them that the future is coming, with or without their help. 

“We do not live for politics,” he concluded, “We thirst for change.”

Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...

Cheers,

Joel Bowman

P.S. As always, a special thanks to our dear members whose subscriber dues make this work possible. (Hmm… honest folks paying voluntarily for a good or service they value in a free and fair market. Imagine that!)

If you are not already a member, but you appreciate the non state-funded work we do here in these Notes, kindly consider joining our growing community here today…