Renaissance for Argentina?

A couple of weeks ago, I shared some good news about President Milei‘s efforts to rescue Argentina’s economy. Here’s a bit more of my optimism. You can see my entire interview on the Schilling Show by clicking here. If you do, you’ll notice I’m actually a mix of hope and fear. The hope is based […]

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More Good Results from Argentina

The most important election of 2023 took place in Argentina, where that nation’s voters elected the libertarian candidate, Javier Milei, as their new president. I discussed the outlook for Milei’s agenda on a recent appearance of the Schilling Show. Here’s a brief excerpt. As you can see, I’m worried that Milei faces enormous obstacles. Argentina […]

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The U.S., Argentina, and the Importance of Long-Run Growth

I’ve periodically tried to explain that even small differences in long-run growth can lead to immense benefits, including huge reductions in poverty. To illustrate the importance of higher growth rates, I sometimes inform audiences that the United States today would be as poor as Mexico if the American economy had grown 1-percentage point slower over […]

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Three Cheers (so far) for Argentina’s Libertarian President

The world’s most sensible political leader is President Javier Milei of Argentina. But that doesn’t mean he will succeed in rescuing his nation’s Peronism-warped economy. Especially since left-leaning parties control the legislature. But he’s definitely trying. Let’s start with some good news. Here’s a tweet from Daniel Di Martino. This is a remarkable achievement. Using […]

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The Anti-Trump of Argentina Pushes for Free Trade

As I wrote just two days ago, the establishment media often alternates between bias and inaccuracy. An example from earlier this year is when the press referred to Javier Milei, a presidential candidate in Argentina, as a “Mini-Trump.” That was an absurd depiction. Milei is an out-of-the-closet libertarian who ran – and won – on […]

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Can Argentina Be Rescued, Part III

My trip to Argentina last year motivated me to write Part I of this series, which focused on whether things might get better in that tragic country for the simple reason that they couldn’t possibly get any worse. In Part II of this series, I analyzed whether a libertarian candidate’s surprisingly strong performance in Argentina’s […]

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An Upside-Down Economic History of Argentina

Argentina has a very interesting, but also rather tragic, economic history. During first half of the 20th century, it was one of the world’s richest nations. But thanks to dirigiste economic policies (known locally as Peronism) starting after World War II, Argentina has suffered a dramatic decline in relative living standards. However, something shocking has […]

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A Libertarian Landslide in Argentina

After a libertarian candidate took first place in Argentina’s presidential primary back in August, I wrote that the runoff would be the most important election of 2023 (even more important than the fortunately failed referendum to weaken TABOR in Colorado). Amazingly, Argentinian voters opted for the libertarian by a strong 56-44 margin. To understand President-Elect […]

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Argentina Joins the Anti-Divergence Club (Again)

Why is Argentina’s presidential election the most important political contest of 2023? For the simple reason that Argentina’s economy is the biggest tragedy of the past 100 years. Reversing the country’s decline is a major challenge. How big of a challenge? To answer that question, look at this chart that was shared on X (formerly […]

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Can Argentina Be Rescued, Part II

Last month, a plurality of Argentinians voted for a libertarian in their nation’s presidential primary. This shocking result may be an sign that voters have sobered up and realized that they have “run out of other people’s money.” This video from The Economist explains the country’s economic challenges. For what it’s worth, The Economist is […]

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Argentina and Dollarization

I wrote earlier this month about the shocking first-place finish by a libertarian in Argentina’s presidential primary. Today, let’s take a close look at what is arguably Javier Milei’s most radical proposal, which is to eliminate his country’s central bank and instead adopt the US dollar as the national currency. The first thing to understand […]

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Argentina Election Shocker

When I visited Argentina last November to give some speeches, I expressed a lot of pessimism and rhetorically asked whether the country could be rescued. In a column earlier this month, I followed up with two reasons for why Argentina is a basket case: “The short-run answer is modern monetary theory. The long-run answer is […]

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Bidenomics Producing Disaster in Argentina

The U.K.-based Economist calculated a few years ago that Taiwan has been the world’s fastest growing economy over the previous 100 years. That’s not a big surprise since it started poor and is following the tried-and-true recipe for becoming rich. Meanwhile, the world’s worst-performing economy over the same period has been Argentina. And it seems […]

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Can Argentina Be Rescued, Part I?

I’ve written many times about terrible economic policy in Argentina, most recently two days ago while in that benighted country for a conference on fiscal policy. Now that I’m heading back to the United States, I’m contemplating whether it is realistic to imagine an economic turnaround for Argentina. We’ll start with some good news. Argentina […]

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Cry for Argentina

When I write about Argentina, I normally have bad things to say. The world’s worst-performing economy over the past 100 years. A nation victimized by a version of modern monetary theory. An example of how big government erodes societal capital. A case study of bad policy causing a decline in living standards. Today, for only […]

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Argentina: Another Nation Victimized by Modern Monetary Theory

It’s not as bad as Cuba, North Korea, or Venezuela, but Argentina (as illustrated by this video) is a case study of how statism can ruin an economy. The most important takeaway from the video is that Argentina used to be one of the world’s richest nations. Even as recently as the late 1940s, Argentina […]

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A Dependency Lesson from Argentina

Back in 2017, I shared my Second Theorem of Government to warn why it is so important to resist new government giveaway programs. And I used Obamacare as a costly example. Simply stated, it’s much easier to block new handouts than it is to take away goodies once people have been conditioned to think they […]

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The Never-Ending Economic Tragedy of Argentina

What nation serves as the most powerful example of how statism can wreck an economy and impoverish people? The Soviet Union Greece Cuba China Zimbabwe Venezuela Those are all good choices, but perhaps Argentina is the best example (or should we say worst example?). If you go back 100 years, Argentina was one of the […]

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The Economic Tragedy of Argentina

It doesn’t get as much attention as basket-case nations such as Venezuela, North Korea, Zimbabwe, or Cuba, but Argentina is one of the world’s worst-governed nations. It is ranked #155 out of 159 nations by the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World. It is next-to-last (ahead of only Venezuela) in IMD’s World Competitiveness Ranking. […]

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Argentina and the Grim Consequences of Democratic Socialism

It’s difficult to be optimistic about some parts of the world. When I look at Greece and Italy, for instance, I can’t help but think that economic renaissance is very unlikely, in part because of demographics, but even more so because voters have been conditioned to think that they have a right to live off […]

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Argentina and the Political Consequences of Right-Wing Statism

Just last month, I wrote about Argentina’s grim economic outlook and criticized the supposed right-of-center President, Mauricio Macri, for failing to deliver any meaningful economic liberalization. And reform is desperately needed. According to Economic Freedom of the World, Argentina is one of the most statist nations on the planet (the only nations that do worse […]

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Can Argentina Finally Break Free from Decades of Economy-Sapping Statist Governance?

Argentina is a sobering example of how statist policies can turn a rich nation into a poor nation. I’m not exaggerating. After World War II, Argentina was one of the world’s 10-richest nations. But then Juan Peron took power and initiated Argentina’s slide toward big government, which eroded the nation’s competitiveness and hampered growth. Even […]

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Argentina, Trump, and Perón

Since I called Trump a big-government Republican during the 2016 campaign and just condemned his capitulation to a spendaholic budget deal, it goes without saying that I’m not a huge fan of the President. Heck, I also recently criticized his protectionism, warning that additional barriers to trade could offset the pro-growth effect of lower tax […]

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The Libertarian Paradise of Argentina???

Okay, the title of this post is a huge overstatement. I’ve already noted here that Argentina is not a good role model and warned here how that Obama is repeating many of the mistakes that undermined Argentinian prosperity. But I’m nonetheless impressed that Argentina actually allows people at the Lujan Zoo to freely choose whether […]

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Greetings from Argentina – An Obamaesque Land of Crony Capitalism and a Warning to America

Welcome Instapundit readers. Thanks, Glenn. After reading below about Argentina’s decline, several people have emailed to ask how Chile compares. Ask and ye shall receive. This post from last month shows shows Chile, Argentina, and Venezuela. Very powerful, which is why I gave the post such a grandiose title. ============================== There’s been a lot of […]

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The (Missing) Ghost of Thatcherism

While President Javier Milei is easily the best head of state right now, it would be more difficult to pick the best head of state in my lifetime. It may turn out to be Milei, depending on whether he ultimately can convince a hostile legislature to unshackle Argentina’s dirigiste economy. Based on actual accomplishments, however, […]

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The Adverse Economic Consequences of Big-Government Populism

I favor “freedom conservatism” over “national conservatism” because the former is unambiguously based on liberty and the latter veers toward populism. Of course, it’s never easy to define populism. My shorthand definition is that a populist is someone who exploits economic ignorance to push policies that sound appealing to voters in the short run (such […]

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Mexico’s Irresponsible Populist President Proposes Election-Year Giveaway

I’ve written many columns about Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina, but only one column specifically about Mexico. Since I’m currently in Mexico City doing some meetings and research about Mexico’s economic policy, time to make up for that lack of attention. The first thing I did when preparing for my trip was the check the IMF’s […]

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The Case for a Flat Tax

I explained the benefits of a flat tax in a video 14 years ago. And I’ve since shared two videos (here and here) of Steve Forbes arguing for a flat tax. If those are not enough, here’s a recent presentation I made about tax reform for Argentina’s Fundacion Internacional Bases. I was one of three […]

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The World Economic Forum and its Davos Conference

Every January, because of its annual conference in Davos, I get asked about the World Economic Forum (WEF). It’s time to finally respond to those inquiries. Three things come to mind, one positive and two negative. One the positive side, the WEF used to publish a Global Competitiveness Report that I often favorably cited (2009, […]

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