Javier Milei, Argentina’s sleazy far-right President

Deutsche Welle ran this summary last month of the first 500 days of Argentina’s far-right, anarcho-libertarian President, Javier Milei, the guy who campaigned with a chainsaw and came to a CPAC conference in the US this year to give Elon Musk one to wave around: (1)

Svenja Blanke of Germany's left-leaning Friedrich Ebert Foundation views the economic outlook with caution. Speaking with DW, she criticized the government for using the exchange rate as a "kind of crutch" to suppress inflation.

As a result, she noted, the Argentine peso has appreciated, leading to paradoxes like a Big Mac costing the equivalent of €5.48 ($6.30) — comparable to Germany — while the minimum hourly wage stands at just €1.06, which is far below Germany's €12.82.

"This is essentially a kind of social chainsaw massacre," she said, citing severe cuts to wages, education, research, culture, public infrastructure and historical memory. …

[W]eekly protests by retirees, who saw their pensions cut, are proving. Milei's austerity measures have taken a heavy toll on their real purchasing power, and that of many others in the country.

An Argentine Trump, in other words, and proud of it. Milei likes crypto-currency, too. From two months ago, when a scandal broke around a crypto offering called $LIBRA. (2)

The Argentine justice system is investigating the $Libra scam and Milei’s role.

Judge María Serivini on Wednesday ordered the freezing of the assets of businesspeople involved in the creation and promotion of the Libra cryptocurrency, as part of the case investigating the criminal responsibilities of the fraud in which President Javier Milei participated.

The judicial measure seeks to secure the assets of those involved while alleged irregularities in the management of $LIBRA are investigated. As Página/12 revealed, an image from the security cameras of a bank showed the mother and sister of Mauricio Novelli, a businessman linked to President Javier Milei in the scandal with the $LIBRA cryptocurrency, emptying the safe deposit boxes they had opened a few days earlier. (3)

I mean, Milei hasn’t scored a $400 million “flying palace” from Arab oil sheikhs. So he’s not scamming in the big leagues, yet!

The Buenos Aires Herald provided a timetable of the swindle:

Of those who profited, 22.3% made between US$1 and US$1,000; 2.6% made between US$1,000 and US$10,000, and just 0.18% of users made over US$100,000.

The wallet that profited the most made four purchases of US$250,000 (totaling US$1 million) simultaneously with Milei’s post and started to sell around 45 minutes later. Its net profit was US$8.5 million.

The wallet with the greatest losses made its first purchase 10 minutes after Milei’s post and kept buying for the next 13 minutes, before starting to sell after Milei withdrew his public support. In total, it lost US$5.25 million. (4)

Gosh, what a coincidence!

Notes:

(1) Käufer, Tobias (2025): With Milei 500 days in office, are Argentinians better off? Deutsche Welle 04/22/2025. <https://www.dw.com/en/with-milei-500-days-in-office-are-argentinians-better-off/a-72313308> (Accessed: 2025-17-05).

(2) Argentina's Milei denies role in cryptocurrency scandal as government launches probe. FRANCE 24 YouTube channel. 02/18/2025. <https://youtu.be/K8VXrR_6j2o?si=94FSfNeL_luFoZQh> (Accessed: 2025-17-05).

(3) La justicia ordenó congelar los bienes de los socios de Javier Milei en la estafa $LIBRA. Página/12 15.05.2025. <https://www.pagina12.com.ar/825781-la-justicia-ordeno-congelar-los-bienes-de-los-socios-de-javi> (Accessed: 2025-17-05). My translation to English.

(4) $LIBRA: the timeline of a crypto scandal that’s rocking the Milei government. Buenos Aires Herald 17.02.2025. <$LIBRA: the timeline of a crypto scandal that’s rocking the Milei government - Buenos Aires Herald> (Accessed: 2025-17-05).