Julia Kornberg writes:

After decades of chronic inflation and atrocious economic mismanagement by the country’s center-left, Argentines were initially won over by Mr. Milei’s outsider status, his unvarnished style and his vows to repair the country’s shambling finances once and for all. Over the last three years, the president has made major inroads in his efforts to downsize the state and deregulate the economy, slashing funding for the country’s public health care, infrastructure and education systems — increasingly unpopular austerity measures he claims are vital to shrinking the state’s deficit.

Those measures might have curbed inflation and balanced the budget, but life has not improved for many Argentines. The cost of living remains punishingly high, and the country appears headed for a recession. Many are already struggling to make ends meet, with a perception among the country’s historically large, well-educated middle class that downward mobility is inevitable. It is not uncommon to see professors working shifts as Uber drivers or public administrators organizing weekend bake sales to supplement their salaries.

Argentines are similarly disenchanted by Mr. Milei’s eagerness to sell off Argentina’s vast natural resources, which include soy fields in the Pampas, lithium mines in the plateaus of the Andes, oil fields in Vaca Muerta, and the vast expanse of Patagonia, which in Mr. Milei’s imagination will host the data centers that lead us to the A.I. singularity. Mr. Milei has passed a series of laws aimed at exploiting these assets — including something called an “Incentive Regime for Large Investments,” which amounts to an invitation for foreign companies to integrate further into Argentina’s economy with the promise of tax cuts and other benefits.

Mr. Milei’s policies add up to a vision of Argentina as a kind of subsidiary to President Trump’s America, one in which foreign companies will have unfettered access to Argentina’s natural resources, without irksome tax burdens or job creation targets. In other words: a theme park for the global 1 percent, built on the back of a weak domestic economy and a permanent underclass.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Milei’s efforts have been enthusiastically received by the world’s tech tycoons. [Continue reading…]