Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Argentina: Milei Wants to Reverse Rapprochement with China | DW News

Dec 27, 2023 | When he was still campaigning, Argentina's new president Javier Milei threatened to cut ties with Beijing, favoring trade with the US and Europe. But after 23 years of negotiations, a European free-trade deal still seems to be a long way off. That leaves none other than China as an increasingly important trading partner for Argentina - something that is softening the hard anti-Beijing stance of the country's new president.


Naturally, I wish Argentina and the Argentinians all the luck in the world; however, I fear that Argentina is travelling down the wrong road. Javier Milei's experiment with EXTREME DEREGULATION of the economy will, in all probability, lead to no good place; on the contrary, Milei's experiment is likely to make matters ten times worse! If you think that the economy is screwed up now, wait for a few years until the effects of this reckless experiment play out! Almost always in life, the best path to stability is not the extreme path, but the middle way, the golden path – the golden middle way.

We here in the UK have plenty of experience of deregulation under Thatcher and her misguided policies. Look at the mess that the UK is in today as a result of them! But Argentina will be in an even worse situation, because its starting position is so much worse than even the UK's was.

I wish Argentina and the Argentinians well. Of course I do. They are going to need everyone's good wishes. But more than good wishes, Argentina needs a path forward paved with sound economic policies. Javier Milei's anarcho-capitalistic ideas are highly unlikely to deliver the needed goods. – © Mark Alexander