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Comment by alemanek | Hacker News Reader

I would encourage you to take a look at what policies are actually being put in place in Argentina. Milei has kind of an impossible task.

He has to unwind massive government entitlements to stave off a full economic collapse. Argentina is not the US where they can print and borrow endlessly. He came into office with over 200% inflation. An economy can’t function like that forever.

He isn’t just slashing indiscriminately and I don’t see anyway for Argentina to dig it self out of 40 years of irresponsible spending in the 2 months he has been in office. Also remember that he has to forge a coalition with others to get anything done. His party doesn’t have anywhere close to a majority in the legislature.

EDIT: Just looked up and inflation was over 200% annualized when Milei took office.

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> Argentina is not the US where they can print and borrow endlessly

Argentina is the U.S. if it printed and borrowed endlessly. The reaction ordinary Americans had against 8% inflation is what Argentinians had against 200%. America was willing to risk a recession to bring inflation down; we’ll see if Argentina has similar patience.

Milei was a long shot candidate and he was elected on the back of this one issue. Dollarizing the economy and the radical measures Milei ran on in that election have a very real risk of collapsing Argentina. But, the general feeling here from the people I know, so anecdotal of course, is that they would rather risk economic collapse than guarantee it.

Also you act as if America is some bastion of fiscal responsibility. Its position as the worlds largest economy guarantees that it can borrow at the best rates. The dollar being the worlds reserve currency ensures that it can’t devalue too quickly as there is built in massive demand just for normal trade.

So, it has large advantages that Argentina can only dream of. The hill Argentina needs to climb is far steeper than what the US has to contend with.

> you act as if America is some bastion of fiscal responsibility. Its position as the worlds largest economy guarantees that it can borrow at the best rates. The dollar being the worlds reserve currency

America is no bastion of anything responsibility. But its currency and economy became what they are, in large part, due to its economic culture. If America spent like Argentina, the dollar would lose its position and its economy collapse.

The Bretton Woods Agreement and our military probably do us more favors than our spending habits (which are enormous).

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