Posted on 06/15/2024 5:23:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Javier Milei is on tour. Following trips to Spain, Israel, and Davos, the Argentine president most recently traveled to Silicon Valley, where he spoke with tech giants, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Google’s Sundar Pichai. It’s rare these days to see a politician on the right take photos with so many luminaries in the notoriously progressive Bay Area. To Milei, it signifies that “the world is waking up to [economic] freedom” as a means to create broad-based opportunity and sustainably lift the poor out of poverty.
While in California, Milei delivered a highly technical lecture on his new book, Capitalism, Socialism, and the Neoclassical Trap: From Economic Theory To Political Action, at Stanford. He covered the history of economic thought, criticizing John Maynard Keynes while lauding names like Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, and Murray Rothbard—and even some lesser-known economists like Frank Ramsey, Knut Wicksell, and Angus Maddison. The self-described libertarian leader was broadly critical of economic models, which can veer far from reality, and of academic economists for using market failures to justify excessive government intervention.
Back in Argentina, Milei still has a significant battle ahead. He will be judged on his ability to roll back decades of Peronist policies and improve economic performance in the historically inflation-ridden country.
He has already racked up several economic-policy victories. Argentina’s year-over-year inflation rate has fallen to single digits, as of May 2024, thanks to Milei’s “shock therapy” policies of currency devaluations and energy and transportation cuts. Since Milei’s election, the country’s equity markets have rallied significantly, and its dollar-denominated international bonds have reached new highs in response to planned austerity measures. Argentina has made such significant fiscal progress that the IMF has unlocked additional funding as part of its conditional lending deal with the country. Last week, Milei’s most significant legislative reform package to date, including substantial deregulatory and fiscal-consolidation provisions, eked out general approval in Argentina’s Senate, but several pieces face uncertainty in the lower house.
Argentina was once one of the world’s wealthiest countries, but Juan Peron’s statist policies changed the country’s trajectory beginning in the 1940s. Intense regulation, industry takeovers, and destructive export controls—especially those on beef—tanked the country’s fortunes. Following decades of economic tumult, Argentina’s GDP per capita is now about $13,650.
It remains to be seen whether Milei and the legislature can roll back regulatory policies that have stifled whole areas of the Argentine economy. Milei has also yet to follow through on his campaign pledge to adopt the U.S. dollar as the country’s official currency, a move made less necessary by inflation’s downward trend.
Milei also faces political opposition determined to thwart his agenda. He must ask himself: What is the right speed to make economic reforms? His predecessor from 2015 to 2019, Mauricio Macri, failed in part because he was too slow and incrementalist to deliver meaningful change. Milei has taken a different approach—rapid shock therapy well in advance of another election. Reducing government expenditures and deregulating much of the statist economy will undoubtedly come at a high political cost in the short run. Unions in Argentina are already striking against Milei’s economic policies, with the effect of shutting down some public transportation services. Some students are protesting education cuts. But the political cost is one that Milei can bear for the time being.
Milei has made meaningful progress toward his goal of liberalizing the Argentine economy to enable human flourishing and alleviate poverty. Time will tell whether his success continues—and leads other countries to adopt his bold and innovative platform.
Am I wrong?
Words are redefined by others and our selves. But once we are united then things can happen.
What is a conservative?
https://kirkcenter.org/russell-kirk/thought/
https://kirkcenter.org/conservatism/ten-conservative-principles/
The best definition of conservative I can find. Print it and give you your friends and enemies
Fascism is just another branch/brand name of leftism.
Also, NAZI Socialism is another branch/brand name of leftism.
He spoke at the Hoover Institution at Stanford: “The Market Is Ourselves”.
Argentine President Milei Explains His Approach to Freedom at Hoover
Stop viewing every inconvenience discovered in the economy as a market failure needing government intervention, Argentine president Javier Milei told a crowd at the Hoover Institution on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.
All of these movements exalt the collective over the individual - and in doing so attract the eager support of weak individuals who foolishly think the collective will offer them permanent financial subsidies as a reward for their loyalty.
The socialist programs stayed in place because SOME people were benefiting, and they supported the old regime, and are now enemies of Milei.
He needs to watch his personal security.
Communication 101:
I always use “Leftism” so leftists & “normies” can better grasp the reality.
Using “collectivism” is more confusing and less persuasive to those we want to educate.
Additionally, I always use “communism” instead of “progressivism” in communicating & educating the brainwashed - even leftists & middle of the roaders know the evil of communism.
Peron was a leftist. As was Mussolini, and the National Socialist German Workers Party ( Nazis)
Communists declared that any socialists who did not obey the USSR were fascists.
Juan Peron was a Nazi admirer who used the Military Junta to take over Argentina, aided and abetted by his wife, the former whore Evita.
It’s too long and too pedantic for a “definition”.
Here’s something more concise and in less academic, more approachable language, that captures the same spirit.
The essence of conservatism is a rather strong desire to stick with what’s worked in the past - what has been learned through millenia of schools of hard knocks - experience. what we call “traditions”.
The enlightened conservative also understand that things can be improved, thus he’s open to new ideas. But he does so skeptically. Before adopting those “new-fangled” ideas, he wants them thoroughly analyzed and tested on a limited scale (even isolated) to see how they work in real life. The genius of the founders is that they understood this well, and it’s why they created multiple states as opposed to one monolithic country. They saw them as “laboratory in governance” where each state could try what they thought were “improvements” and they all could learn from those “tests” and decide accordingly.
This contrasts with radicalists who are convinced they have the perfect (untested) system and can’t wait to blow up the status quo.
What do you think?
Yep, I agree.
It’s too long and too pedantic for a “definition”.
It has to be a philosophy, something pondered on so much that it becomes a part of thinking and doing.
It has to become a part of us.
What do you think?
And that is ok, recognizing these issues we disagree on, but those conversations need to lead back to what we do agree on, thus the principles of the authors.
But that means a conversation, not drive by postings and memes and cartoons, but they have a role also.
What is a philosophy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy
Philosophy (φιλοσοφία, ‘love of wisdom’, in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its own methods and assumptions.
Note the word systematic.
Liberals look at one or two datapoints (or just c02 in global climate) of complex systems and think they understand it.
But looking at systems will give you a headache and lead to answers like God.
The essence of conservatism is a rather strong desire to stick with what’s worked in the past - what has been learned through millenia of schools of hard knocks - experience. what we call “traditions”.
The enlightened conservative also understand that things can be improved, thus he’s open to new ideas. But he does so skeptically. Before adopting those “new-fangled” ideas, he wants them thoroughly analyzed and tested on a limited scale (even isolated) to see how they work in real life. The genius of the founders is that they understood this well, and it’s why they created multiple states as opposed to one monolithic country. They saw them as “laboratory in governance” where each state could try what they thought were “improvements” and they all could learn from those “tests” and decide accordingly.
This contrasts with radicalists who are convinced they have the perfect (untested) system and can’t wait to blow up the status quo.
The thing is, leftist/socialist/communists are all fascists, and dictators. They are for GOVERNMENT control of everything - which is absurd.
Conservative, ‘right wingers’, etc. are for minimalist government, and self determination. Rule of law equally applied to all, not just the ‘peons’.
By the way, there’s a great poem by Kipling that I consider the “anthem of conservatism”. Truly brilliant.
It’s “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”.
See what you think.
https://www.poetry.com/poem/33442/the-gods-of-the-copybook-headings
Chaos outside Congress as anti-omnibus protest turns violent (watching Argentina)
Argentina Times ^ | 6/14/24
Posted on 6/14/2024, 5:50:08 AM by EBH
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4244238/posts
Hundreds of security forces fired tear gas and water cannons at rioting demonstrators outside the National Congress building in Buenos Aires on Wednesday as protesters called on senators to reject President Javier Milei’s sweeping reform plan.
Demonstrators who were protesting against the proposed reforms, which are being debated by lawmakers in the lower house, were dealt with aggressively by riot police and Border Guard officers.
As the protest turned ugly, two cars were set alight by what appeared to be protesters.
Police later said that at least 18 people, 16 men and two women, had been arrested amid the disturbances. At least three police officers were injured.
“Among those arrested is a 41-year-old man who was in possession of a grenade which is being analysed by specialised personnel. A woman was also arrested for being responsible for setting fire to government bicycles,” said the City Police.
Scuffles first broke out when those rallying tried to bypass a system of fences set up between them and Congress. Demonstrators lobbed stones at officers who pepper-sprayed them in response.
Observers and opposition MPs said dozens of demonstrators and a small group of lawmakers received medical attention. Journalists were also reported to have been injured.
In a fiercely worded statement, Milei’s Office slammed the “terrorist groups” behind the violence and accused protesters of seeking to carry out a “coup d’état.”
“The Office of the President congratulates the Security Forces for their excellent actions in repressing the terrorist groups that with sticks, stones and even grenades, attempted to perpetrate a coup d’état, attacking the normal functioning of the Congress,” read a brief statement released on social media.
Their leftist protesters are no different than ours.
Hmmm...will need to buy his book.
Thanks for the great post!
Sounds GREAT!!
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