Argentine President Javier Milei’s address to the World Economic Forum was, as you’ve no doubt heard, a real corker. The principles of classical liberalism have not been so vehemently promoted on the world stage since the Gipper and Margaret Thatcher left office. If the Falklands could be offered as a prize for best speech, I’ve no doubt the Iron Lady would consider it.
In peppery Rioplatense Spanish, he laid out the basic arguments for the economic and moral superiority of free peoples. He slammed “collectivists” and “parasites” who have been tinkering with state-backed regulatory schemes for decades:
“We’re here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause. Believe me: No one is better placed than we Argentines to testify to these two points.”
And of course, he’s right. The Peronist model of macroeconomic planning directed from the central corridors of Buenos Aires has brought Argentina low, from mid-range global rankings of regulatory weight to 158th in the last 23 years. This means Argentina is now in the ranks of the worst five percent of nations for economic freedom, with deplorable measures on openness to trade, monetary policy, and property protections. Argentina was once in the top tier of the richest nations of the world, now it rubs shoulders with the likes of Libya, Serbia, and Mauritius.
