I lived a year in Argentina in the mid-2010s, and the economy at that time was in a terrible state: shortages, currency controls, out-of-control inflation, clogged ports—you name it. Often the ATMs in Neuquén, Patagonia, had no cash to be withdrawn. Once, that meant I had to promise to pay the taxi driver upon my return, since I needed to get to the airport.
I was not optimistic about it ever turning around, given the dishonesty within the society and the layered, union-dominated government. To conceal inflation, for example, the central government literally fixed the Big Mac price to trick an international index.
However, Argentina had a vibrant classical-liberal community and a patriotic yearning for national success. Meanwhile, many Argentines could see the success of Chile, and some recognized this came from Chile’s market liberalization in the 1970s and 1980s. A simple passage across the border revealed better roads and more modern amenities on the Chilean side.
Frustration, awareness, and yearning ultimately boiled over and manifested in Javier Milei’s historic electoral victory in late 2023. Argentina’s long-standing educators such as Eduardo Marty and Federico Fernández can take credit for building support for liberalism, such that it will not be a flash in the pan.
Milei is wrestling with an entrenched, profoundly corrupt political class. His hands have been tied in many regards, so he has not enacted the purported shock therapy he would like to.
That being said, his electoral success—as an ardent paleolibertarian—was a shock in and of itself. It has sent a profound message to the world. That, along with what he has been able to enact, has generated many unequivocally positive outcomes in just a year and a half:
- Lower inflation: 287.9 percent in March 2024 to 55.9 percent in March 2025.
- A reduced fiscal deficit: 5.4 percent of GDP in 2023 to 0.9 percent of GDP in 2024.
- Higher stock-market values: the main stock index in Argentina, the Merval, has increased by 86.2 percent in the last year.
- Less unemployment: 7.7 percent in Q1 2024 to 6.4 percent in Q4 2024.
- A lower sovereign risk premium: 1,436 points in June 2024 to 720 points in April 2025.
