Is Javier Milei, the "libertarian" president of Argentina, a complete fraud? \ stacker news ~econ

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Is Javier Milei, the "libertarian" president of Argentina, a complete fraud?

766 sats \ 14 comments \ @Signal312 10h econ

I was excited when Javier Milei became president of Argentina. Wow, I thought. Amazing! An anarcho-capitalist president who promises to shut down the central bank. The world is getting better!

Then I saw that Saifedean Ammous, the author of the famous Bitcoin classic The Bitcoin Standard, was posting some very sharp critiques of Javier Milei, after being on his side for some time. I respect Saifedean Ammous very much, so I pay attention to what he says.

Hmm, I thought. That's strange. I chalked it up to "the world is a complicated place". And "maybe Ammous should give him some grace, things take time", etc.

Then I did some more research. Saifedean Ammous is not the only one who has some very negative things to say about Milei and his policies.

https://mises.org/power-market/resignation-scientific-advisory-board-ludwig-von-mises-institute-germany

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/08/even-senior-austrian-economists-are-beginning-to-distance-themselves-from-javier-milei.html

And here's another thing. I had zero knowledge about this - most people don't - but for an Argentinian president, Javier Milei is, very oddly, extremely strongly aligned to Israel. Dig for yourself if you want, but here's some articles on this odd link.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/argentinian-presidents-surprising-devotion-to-judaism-and-israel-provokes-tension/

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2024-10-15/ty-article-magazine/.premium/moses-of-argentina-inside-javier-mileis-strange-obsession-with-judaism-and-israel/00000192-8abe-d222-ab9a-cfff79900000 (archive link: https://archive.is/slu8R)

https://buenosairesherald.com/politics/milei-has-claimed-the-mantle-of-judaism-it-makes-some-argentine-jews-uneasy

And then I did a little more research. Saifedean Ammous is Palestinian, and of course opposed to the genocide in Gaza. So no wonder he looks a little more closely, when it turns out that Milei is so oddly aligned to Israel, and specifically the war criminal Bibi Netanyahu.

Here's Ammous on Javier Milei (summary from Grok):

Saifedean Ammous, a prominent Austrian economist and Bitcoin advocate, has evolved from early praise for Milei's 2023 election as a libertarian breakthrough to vehement criticism by 2025. He accuses Milei of betraying core principles by failing to shut down the Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA), instead quadrupling money supply (e.g., M0 up 344% since Dec 2023) to sustain a "carry trade Ponzi scheme." This involves printing pesos to roll over high-interest bonds (up to 88%), enriching bankers and speculators while fueling inflation, devaluing the peso (down 10%+ recently), and deepening debt reliance on IMF/U.S. bailouts. Ammous calls it "fiat fraud," "Keynesian nonsense," and a "nationwide gambling scam" that diverts capital from productive uses, discredits Austrian economics, and ensures future crises. He urges Bitcoin adoption over peso tinkering, framing Milei's inaction as deliberate corruption tied to cronies like Luis Caputo.

Here's a very detailed post from Saifedean Ammous on Milei's money printing https://x.com/saifedean/status/1965101959259771303

Also Milei just got 40 billion USD from the United States. Just a few days before the elections in Argentina, which he won. https://x.com/saifedean/status/1979193041505202215

@didiplaywell

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1 reply \ @Signal312 OP 9h

And oh yeah I forgot - he promoted not one, but TWO shitcoins.

https://x.com/saifedean/status/1890724929168912636 This is about the $Libra coin. Viral takedown calling Milei's promotion a deliberate scam: He hyped $LIBRA for "economic growth," cashed out millions, then dumped it. Ammous shares screenshots of Milei's deleted tweet and wallet dumps, shocking even "shitcoiners." Ties to Milei's pattern of enriching cronies.

https://x.com/saifedean/status/1890863314269351970 This is about his 2021 support for CoinX.

In this old interview, when asked whether he had been paid for the promotion in 2021, Milei himself recognized, “I charge for my opinions, of course I charge for my opinions.”

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 8h

Yup follow the signal. Publicity stunt with bitcoin

233 sats \ 3 replies \ @k00b 7h

@didiplaywell has been debunking/providing context to some of Ammous' criticisms. I don't know what to think. In general, we all tend to think other people's jobs are easy and straightforward, and when they don't do what we think they should, we assume they're up to something.

I don't trust Ammous' analysis of Milei. I don't trust the media's. I don't trust Milei's. And I haven't spent time looking very closely at what he's done myself.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Signal312 OP 6h

Ammous' was previously in favor of Milei. A little skeptical, a little like "show me", but overall positive.

He had a podcast on Milei in January 2024, generally hopeful: https://saifedean.com/podcast/204-mileis-argentina-with-philip-bagus

Ammous later became more skeptical, and is now a full fledged Milei hater.

Here's one of his later articles on Milei, and the scams that are being perpetuated by him in Argentina right now: https://ronpaulinstitute.org/javier-milei-unraveled-no-crying-in-the-casino/

Here's a quote from that article:

When the ponzi collapses, as it always does, Argentines will have lost their cash savings, and most suckers who invest in bonds will have been ruined, but the fiat cartel banks will walk away well-fed, as they always do.

Milei will discredit Austrian and libertarian ideas for decades to come by associating them with their diametrical opposites: inflation, indebtedness, bond market pump-and-dumps, and genocide. It is only his constant invocation of the Austrians that makes me take time from my busy schedule to discuss this con artist and his unfortunate country.

Socialists of the world, you can now laugh at us libertarians for stealing from you the same line for which we have mocked you for decades: but it wasn’t real libertarianism!

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 5h

I agree that if Milei fails his association with libertarianism might have consequences for the movement in general.

Assuming he isn't pretending to be libertarian (I don't think he is), and is merely not a perfect libertarian in practice, I'd guess his tenure will help Argentina and help the movement learn something about switching a country away from socialism under libertarian goal posts.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 5h

Yeah I imagine there's pretty important path dependence and you can't just switch systems from one to another and have it work. The transition itself is a process and if not handled right will simply result in failure

The tricky part is that when things are unbearable, people may not politically accept slow transitions and they may demand instantaneous change, even if not actually possible.

1044 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 10h

The right question isn't whether Milei is doing exactly what Rothbard would do. It's whether he is making Argentina a significantly less centrally planned society.

I don't have a strong feeling about the answer to that question, yet, but it's the standard by which we should judge him.

42 sats \ 3 replies \ @Signal312 OP 9h

Apparently not. Strong police state vibes.

Javier Milei’s government will monitor social media with AI to ‘predict future crimes’

Will Milei's AI Policing Plan Become a Tool for Social Control?

51 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 9h

I'm still reserving judgement. I don't expect what's written about him or his intentions to be any more accurate than what we saw during Trump's first term.

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @Signal312 OP 8h

Milei has had a LOT of support, initially, around the world from libertarian oriented folks. And a lot of that has evaporated as he's exposed himself as a fraud.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 8h

He might be

22 sats \ 0 replies \ @88b0c423eb 5h

just another politician. A real libertarian can never be a politician, but he destroyed the term now

431 sats \ 0 replies \ @sirstackalot 6h

His support for Israel has nothing to do with him being an alleged fraud for violating libertarian principles...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 9h

All 'Libertarian' politicians are by definition frauds. Jewish bankers own the US government. And all who are in debt to the IMF.