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“Argentine President Javier Milei's party cruised to victory in midterm legislative elections as voters handed him a mandate to keep pushing through his radical overhaul of the economy despite widespread discontent with his deep austerity measures.” Reuters
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday said the U.S. will not lose any taxpayer funds in financial support measures for Argentina… The United States earlier this month purchased Argentine pesos and finalized a $20 billion currency swap framework with Argentina's central bank after a meeting between the two countries' top finance officials in Washington.” Reuters
The left is divided about Milei’s reforms, and criticizes the bailout.
“Having won the election, Milei’s challenge will now be to manage monetary policy. The government had been burning through reserves to maintain the peso’s value. US assistance was explicitly a stopgap. A temporary influx of dollars will not rescue a programme that is failing its own electorate – and in the longer term, Argentine voters are unlikely to be swayed by foreign patronage…
“That Milei’s libertarian experiment already needs rescuing underscores its failure. Inflation has eased, but austerity has choked growth and gutted subsidies for transport, energy, health and education, making it harder for the country’s poor to make it to the end of the month…
“Wages are 6% less in real terms than they were just before Milei took office, and a Big Mac costs more in Argentina than in New York. Confidence in the government has plummeted, and belief in a ‘better future’ has fallen from 48% to 34% in 2025.”
Jordana Timerman, The Guardian
“There’s nothing inherently wrong with bailing out a country facing a financial crisis: The United States did that in 1995 to rescue Mexico. One difference is that the Mexico bailout was well-crafted and succeeded, while for now it’s not obvious what policy has changed in Argentina that would lead the Trump bailout to achieve stability in a country that is still struggling after more than 20 previous bailouts (including one just this spring by the I.M.F.)…
“Another difference is that we had an enormous interest in stability in Mexico as our neighbor and major trade partner. Even Trump acknowledges that the bailout of Argentina does not reflect vital American interests… [But] The bailout could also significantly benefit a number of wealthy American hedge fund investors, including two billionaire friends of Bessent who previously worked with him.”
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
Some note, “Since taking office in December 2023, the brash president has made unquestionable progress. The federal budget is now balanced. Two years ago, the fiscal deficit was 4.4 percent of gross domestic product. While inflation exceeded 200 percent in 2023, it is now expected to finish 2025 at around 30 percent. Milei’s approval rating remained high, as voters trusted that the economic pain they felt from austerity measures was necessary to turn the country around…
“Milei spoke fondly of the United States long before Trump’s 2024 victory, and he wants to align Argentina with the U.S. while China and Russia gain influence elsewhere in the region. That alone is reason enough to hope for his continued success.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
The right praises Milei’s reforms, and generally supports the currency swap.
The right praises Milei’s reforms, and generally supports the currency swap.
“Milei cut the number of government ministries in half, fired thousands of state employees, and implemented hundreds of deregulations. He entered office in December 2023 promising to cut down Argentina’s chronically high government spending and expansive regulatory regime. By the end of 2024, Milei had cut government spending by around 30 percent. Argentina recorded its first budget surplus in more than a decade…
“Milei’s reforms weren’t only successful for the country’s balance sheet. Poverty in Argentina decreased from more than 50 percent at the beginning of 2024 to below 40 percent by the end of Milei’s first year in office. GDP growth also rebounded… The government’s elimination of rent controls also sparked a revival in the country’s housing market. Real rents have fallen by almost a third, and rental supply has tripled.”
Alex Demas, Peter Gattuso, and Ross Anderson, The Dispatch
“Milei has shed the ‘Global South’ orientation of his Peronist predecessors, canceled plans to join the BRICS grouping, and aligned Argentina closely to the U.S. He has been a robust, unapologetic advocate of Western values and free market economics, a rare species in Latin American politics. He is establishing defense ties with NATO…
“Extending money to Argentina is, as generations of infuriated creditors have discovered, extremely risky. But if Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s lifeline gives Milei enough breathing space, it should attract other cash, starting with that second $20 billion, giving a fresh tailwind to reforms that could transform Argentina into a prosperous, powerful American ally and a beacon in the region…
“This would inevitably mean a sharp diminution of Chinese influence in a country that is not only the eighth-largest in the world but also resource-rich — oil, gas, soy, grains, copper, lithium, fashionable rare metals, and more besides — and located where the Monroe Doctrine’s writ once ran. The administration has made a big gamble, but it was right to do so.”
The Editors, National Review
“Both China and Iran had made significant inroads in South America over the last few decades, creating chaos and generating security risks for the US. The Trump administration's new ‘Donroe Doctrine’ is addressing that in muscular terms, with a full Western Hemisphere press involving military, diplomatic, and commercial pressures to bolster Amercian strength in the region. Trump's intervention in Argentina's fiscal woes delivers more stability to the push to get China and Iran out of the region.”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
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