Argentinian Libertarian Candidate Milei Rising

On Sunday, Javier Milei, libertarian economist, clinched a major electoral victory in the Latin American nation. Milei is calling for the replacement of the Argentinian Peso with the US Dollar and the end of the Central Bank amongst other policies.

The current Lower House representative garnered the most votes (30.2%)in the Primary, Open, Simultaneous, and Mandatory Elections (PASO). As these “primaries” are a full dress rehearsal for the final Presidential election in October, these results are very significant. The presidential hopeful is running on a distinctly “anti Central Bank” and “anti-inflation” platform as economic conditions in Argentina continue to spiral.

Milei proposes following Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama’s lead in fully abandoning the peso and adopting the US dollar. More than that, he is arguing that legal tender laws should be abolished with a ‘competition of currencies’. Citizens would be able to freely choose their monetary system. If businesses and individuals wish to make contracts in other currencies, or real money like gold and silver, then who is the government to stop them. Governments jealously try to insulate their fiat currencies with legal tender laws that outlaw the use of other mediums of exchange.

One of the other particularly impactful ideas floated in the public debate has been the elimination of the Central Bank and its money printing. He has promised to ‘eradicate the political caste”, arguing that Argentina’s two traditional parties are essentially two sides of the same coin, and will never be able to reverse the decades of economic and social deterioration. Faced with a shortage of reserves, the Argentinian Government has had to turn to excessive money creation to plug the holes in their budget.

Argentina is still facing triple-digit annual inflation and the poverty rate has risen up now to approximately 40%. With the local peso losing value so consistently, a formal move to the dollar might not be as controversial and drastic as it sounds. A lack of honest money is like a rotten core that affects every level of society. With economic opportunities hard to come by, it’s no wonder that voters are looking for an alternative.

While Argentina’s currency collapse is significantly more progressed than Australia, ultimately all fiat currencies meet the same fate as their purchasing power erodes. To protect your wealth, gold and silver are the only monetary vehicles, money in the pure sense of the word, that have given individuals true immunity from the excesses of central banks and the uniparties that pretend to offer citizens choice in elections or print Fiat currency to pay for their election winning promises.