The people of Argentina have elected Javier Milei as the new president of the country.  Milei is sometimes described as a radical libertarian.  He has even described himself as an anarcho-capitalist and a follower of Murray Rothbard.

Milei won with about 56% of the vote, so it was quite decisive.  Argentina has been plagued with high unemployment and high inflation.  The price inflation there is reported to exceed 100% annually.

It shouldn’t be surprising that the people wanted a change, yet it still is a bit of a surprise.  When socialist governments create problems, they also create dependency.  There is much propaganda to tell people that we need even more socialism and government interference.  Unfortunately, history has shown that people often fall for it and continue to elect hyper interventionists.

Is Milei Really a Libertarian?

This is where the skeptic in me comes out.  Even though Milei has cited Rothbard and likes to rail against the central bank, I have strong doubts that he will govern as a libertarian.

Milei is an advocate of Bitcoin, but that should really play no role in politics other than keeping government out of it.  There certainly should be no monetary system based on Bitcoin unless it is chosen by the market.  Perhaps you could say the same thing about gold, but at least a gold standard, even if it is run by a government, has some basis of being derived by the marketplace.  Gold was chosen freely as a form of money for thousands of years.

Some libertarians have been skeptical, or even critical, that Milei may tie the Argentinian currency to the U.S. dollar.  I actually don’t think this would be a bad first step, because the U.S. dollar is a much sounder currency than the peso.  I don’t think libertarians should expect an abolishment of the central bank in Argentina, and certainly not right away.  There is a libertarian argument to made that it shouldn’t be abolished in just one step because of the chaos it would cause.

Of course, 100% or higher inflation causes utter chaos.  But there are contracts to be concerned about, and the best way to have a somewhat smooth transition to sound and free money is by allowing competition to take place.  Argentinians should be free to use pesos, dollars, gold, Bitcoin, or anything else they want to use for transactions.

In terms of policy positions, my biggest concern with Milei is his foreign policy.  He could probably fit in on the debate stage with the GOP (i.e., war hawk) candidates talking about Israel.  Hopefully Milei will serve as president of Argentina and not of Israel.

Perhaps the fortunate thing about the disaster that is the Argentinian economy is that the government doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on foreign interventions.  That is not yet the case with the United States.

Will Milei Have Courage?

Even if Milei is a fairly solid libertarian to start, there is going to be immense pressure from special interests, from foreign players, and from the establishment in general.  It is tough to stand up against this.

I can think of very few politicians who have mostly been able to stay principled for a long period of time.  There is Ron Paul.  He was in Congress, but never made it to the presidency.  I’d like to think that he would have stuck to his principles if he had become president, but you never know.  But that is what made Ron Paul so unique.  Most people actually believed that he would stick to his principles.

Boris Johnson was supposedly a reader of LewRockwell.com at one time.  I have no idea how true this is.  But he was a total disaster of a prime minister.  He is partially responsible for the war in Ukraine and killing any peace negotiations.

It is easy to be skeptical of anyone who reaches a position of high power.  In fact, it is right to be.  Power corrupts people quickly.  They want to be liked, and they want to maintain their power and prestige.

Even if Milei shows courage and sticks with his convictions, it will still be really difficult.  We all saw what happened to Donald Trump.  He was already smeared relentlessly by the establishment and its media up until the 2016 election.  After he was actually elected, they went after him with just about everything.  The deep state maintained control over every important area and agency.  This includes the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Justice, the military-industrial complex, the medical establishment, and the national security state.

So, while it’s nice that Milei seems to be really solid on economics, the biggest question is whether he will be able to take on the deep state.  Argentina is different from the United States, but there is deep state bureaucracy in every major government.

Reason for Optimism

The main reason I am cheering this election and am optimistic is for the simple fact that the Argentinians elected someone who was running on a somewhat radical libertarian message.  He is popular among the young voters, which is an even better sign.

Even if he isn’t successful in getting Argentina anywhere close to a libertarian society, I think things will move in that direction.  Even if Milei goes against his promises and is a disaster, it is still quite positive for the future of liberty.  It’s not like he was a libertarian while campaigning as something else.  Some might have voted for him as the lesser of two evils, but that means they saw the socialist candidate as the bigger evil.

I wouldn’t expect great things from Milei, but I do expect improvements.  And with the liberty movement alive and well in Argentina, there is great hope for the future there.