In Argentina, the swamp is deep -- and with Javier Milei leading in the polls and elections a week away -- very, very, desperate.
Milei, recall, is the libertarian conservative candidate there who is leading in the polls, vowing to dollarize the Argentinian economy and scrap the country's incompetent central bank. That South American version of our Fed has brought Argentina 100%-plus inflation owing to its inability to quit printing money under the country's current socialist/Peronist (read: fascist) government. For that, they decided to try to bust him a week before the election, with this lunacy:
A prosecutor launched a criminal case Friday against Argentina's frontrunner in this month's presidential elections, accusing Javier Milei of deliberately causing a drop in the Argentine currency when he encouraged citizens not to save in pesos.
Milei denounced the move as political persecution, just days ahead of the Oct. 22 polling.
President Alberto Fernández had called for the investigation in a complaint filed Wednesday, saying that the right-wing populist candidate was trying to scare the public and that his actions were "a severe affront to the democratic system."
That's insanity. They're pretty good at making the value of the peso go down on their own owing to their endless money-printing sprees. For Milei to be telling people to save in dollars because Argentina is going to be using dollars if he wins can only happen if people have made up their minds that they are going to vote for him and they believe he will win, so they are adjusting their expectations accordingly.
The peso went down because locals switched to the dollar? That's a vote of no confidence in the clowns running the show there right now. And for them to complain is idiocy. Whose money is it, anyway? Like all leftists, they seem to think it's their money and Milei is wrecking it. And they insist that citizens hold it even as they devalue it themselves. That shows the extent of the problem. If there was no truth to Milei's ideas holding water, including that he will win and get rid of the miserable peso, then they should have an easy time of telling he locals to save their money in pesos like they do, or more likely, don't (they like to keep a stash of dollars in Uruguayan banks like other Argentines, but as hypocrites, don't admit it).
The people have had enough of this and they are following Milei.
Milei looks kind of wild -- the Guardian calls him a "wolverine" and his language can be Trump-like, but like Trump, he's no wild man -- he's right over the target, explaining basic fact-based economics and rule of law perfectly from a real world perspective and listening to exactly the right people, such as the utterly excellent free market economist Diana Mondino, who is expected to be his foreign minister if he wins the election on Oct. 22. That is what is really enraging them.
Reuters says the election is going to be close but I have my doubts about that at this point, with Milei drawing crowds like this over the weekend:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">La victoria en primera vuelta será aplastante <a href="https://t.co/5aDfnAIJIZ">pic.twitter.com/5aDfnAIJIZ</a></p>— Ⓜ️ati Smith???????? (@Trumperizar) <a href="https://twitter.com/Trumperizar/status/1713329324382617960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">Pero LPM<br>Otra vez me emocioné con <a href="https://twitter.com/JMilei?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JMilei</a> y este pibe. <br>Sin duda, el futuro es liberal carajo<a href="https://t.co/3yo7uMC2RY">pic.twitter.com/3yo7uMC2RY</a></p>— Adam Smith (@liberalona) <a href="https://twitter.com/liberalona/status/1713334754953552371?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That doesn't look close.
The Buenos Aires Herald seemed to be upset about this, writing that Milei's vision "seduces" young voters, as if wanting the ATM machine to dispense money that's worth the paper it's printed on is some kind of Utopian dream.
Ummm, it isn't 'seduction' to want normal life and an economy that grows rather than shrivels, pals.
Milei is right over the target, actually, well in tune with the people in the same way Trump is, and the swamp there just can't take it. He can't get a better advisor than Mondino. I spent time with Mondino herself during Argentina's 2002 crisis about two or three crises ago, in Buenos Aires, when she ran the Standard & Poor's operation. I recall how the swamp establishment back then hated her even then, because she was such a straight shooter, having cut Argentina's sovereign credit rating to zero back when it defaulted on its sovereign debt. Well, what did they expect? They ran out on their tab. We know what they expected and she didn't give it to them. There is nobody, nobody, better or more knowledgeable or more free market-oriented than her so very well placed to help lead that country out of its mess. Milei is going to be a heckuva good president, cleaning out the Augean stables of socialism in that country with people like her on his team.
If this banana-republic swamp garbage goes through (I am hoping Argentina has enough checks and balances to ensure that it doesn't), it would be an absolute travesty of democracy, hitting a frontrunner like that, same as they are trying to do to President Trump.
When it gets that bad, it's the final thrashings of a rabid bat about to meet its demise. For the socialist state of Argentina, that can't come soon enough.
Image: Twitter screen shot