- Saifedean Ammous criticized Argentina’s President Javier Milei for failing to close the central bank and fulfill his economic promises.
- Ammous accused Milei of promoting inflationary policies and continuing statist rhetoric despite advocating for free markets.
Saifedean Ammous, a renowned economist and advisor to the government of El Salvador on Bitcoin-related matters, recently launched a scathing critique of Argentine President Javier Milei.
Known for his promotion of Austrian economic principles, Milei had made bold promises during his election campaign to reform Argentina’s economy. A central promise was the closure of the country’s central bank to combat inflation—a move that many saw as a radical step toward a more open market.
However, since assuming office, Milei has backpedaled on this commitment, leading Ammous to label him a
“classic Latin American inflation populist.”
Ammous took to social media to express his disappointment with Milei’s actions, highlighting the contradictions between his campaign rhetoric and the reality of his governance. According to Ammous, Milei’s promises about adhering to Austrian economic theories were mere slogans, repeated for television appearances but not followed through in practice.
While many Argentinians have shown some approval of Milei‘s management—especially regarding inflation, which dropped from a worrying 25.5% in December 2023 to 2.4% in November—Ammous and others have raised concerns over the lack of real structural changes.
Among Milei’s most prominent campaign promises was the dissolution of Argentina’s central bank. He argued that the central bank’s power to print money was a primary driver of the country’s crippling inflation.
However, once in office, Milei ceased discussing the central bank’s closure and began offering explanations for its continued operation.
Ammous criticized this shift, claiming that Milei had adopted the same statist rhetoric that governments often use to justify inflation, such as the argument that short-term economic pain from reforms would outweigh the long-term benefits.
Ammous also pointed out that Milei failed to declare a default on Argentina’s national debt, which could have been an opportunity to address the country’s fiscal crisis. According to Ammous, a default would have been a “Rothbardian” solution—referring to economist Murray Rothbard’s advocacy for abandoning state-backed monetary policies.
Such an action could have created the necessary conditions for long-term economic growth, free from the destructive influence of money printing.
Without the ability to issue new currency, future governments would be limited in their power, making Argentina more likely to adopt alternative currencies like Bitcoin or even the U.S. dollar.
Ammous warned that by allowing the central bank to continue printing money, Milei was laying the groundwork for future currency crises. He expressed concerns that the president seemed to be negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure yet another loan, which would likely perpetuate the cycle of debt and inflation.
In this light, Milei’s economic policies appeared to mirror those of past Argentine governments, such as the Peronist regime of Juan Domingo Perón, which faced long-standing issues due to inflationary practices.
The debate also extended to tax policy. Ammous condemned Milei for raising taxes, claiming that this would only further burden the Argentine people while benefiting international banking cartels and the IMF.
He argued that such decisions betrayed the supposed commitment to Austrian economic principles, as increasing taxes to allow for more government debt was directly opposed to the free-market ideals Milei had purportedly championed.
Lastly, Ammous criticized Milei’s decision to send gold reserves from Argentina to London in search of cheaper U.S. dollars. This move, he suggested, was an echo of past mismanagement.
He referenced historian Niall Ferguson’s book “The Ascent of Money,” which detailed Argentina’s past financial struggles, particularly during the presidency of Juan Perón, who drained the country’s gold reserves to fund unsustainable government spending.
Despite the criticism from experts like Ammous, Milei has defended his approach, stating that Argentina must first address the financial state of the central bank, including its debt, before taking drastic actions like the eventual closure of the bank.
He suggested that once these financial issues were resolved, the peso’s relevance might diminish, and Argentina could shift toward a dollarized economy or even adopt cryptocurrencies, simplifying the eventual dissolution of the central bank.
