Javier Milei’s Free Market: Argentina’s Turnaround Proves the Power of Freedom
Argentina’s Economic Turnaround Under Javier Milei Proves Freedom Works—Will Trump Take Notes?
A little over a year ago, Argentina was in serious trouble. Its inflation numbers and serious poverty were out of control, and with its bloated government controlling its economy, it was painful to watch. Finally, the citizens had had enough, and on December 10, 2023, they rolled the dice, electing Javier Milei as their new president with promises of turning their country’s demise around—and it’s worked. Milei was covered by the mainstream U.S. press as a crazy chainsaw-weilding libertarian, even calling him a “fiery right wing populist.” Milei also met with much criticism from similar media for meeting with Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Apparently, Musk and Milei have more in common regarding economics than Donnie, as Musk is acting more like Milei while Trump is acting like, who knows what.
So, what’s happened since Milei’s election? Poverty is down sharply from 52.9% to 38.1% in the second half of 2024—a drop of nearly 15 points, lifting millions out of despair, and there’s still more to do. Inflation has fallen from a monthly peak of 25.5% to 2.7% by December 2024, giving Argentines breathing room and predictability. Argentina’s GDP has ticked up 3.9% in Q3 2024 after years of decline, with projections of 5-7.5% growth in 2025.
What we have learned from Argentina’s example is that when the government steps back, people step up—markets deliver where the state fails. I wish Trump would learn and implement this strategy, but he seems more interested in having the government meddle more in the markets than in free markets. Milei’s free-market reforms are delivering, showing that freedom, not statism, is the path to prosperity.
Argentina has suffered decades of government intrusion over the people and businesses while printing money like crazy and subsidizing the wrong industries. What they ended up with pre-Milei was an inflation rate of 211% and a 42% poverty rate in 2023. Families couldn't budget their money, businesses couldn’t properly invest their capital, and whenever the government would “ come to the rescue," it just made things worse. We know from history that central planning does not work as well as free markets—and we see this in real time in Argentina. This should be a stark warning to Trump.
While Milei has adjusted some of Argentina’s regulations so as not to face the back end of Trump’s tariff policy, he reminds the world, “Tariffs and trade barriers are just a bad memory of the past.” That said, Argentina has an average of 22% on import tariffs (like I said, there’s still more to do).
But I didn’t get into the specifics of how Milei turned Argentina around. He took his famous chainsaw to cut down their federal government by slashing spending by 30%, cutting subsidies dramatically, and eliminating price controls—all things Trump should be doing here. Milei trusted the markets to self-correct, and they did, something government bureaucrats could not. While Milei received much backlash for being cruel, it turned out to be the best call as the numbers do not lie; inflation has gone from a monthly peak of 25.5% to 2.7% by December 2024, GDP ticked up 3.9% in Q3 2024 after years of decline, with projections of 5-7.5% growth in 2025.
Milei is just cleaning up the mess created before him. While trickle-down economics is not his goal, unleashing human potential is. After all, slashing extreme poverty from 18.1% down to 8.2% affects a nation, showing that progress hits real families; it’s not just statistics.
Milei is thriving but still faces headwinds. The Argentinian Peso is overvalued,, and there are midterm elections this October, so we’ll see if the people want to continue down this path.