From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Middle-Class Revolt in Argentina   
   By The Editorial Board, Aug. 14, 2023, WSJ   
   Inflation is the thief of middle-class prosperity, and in Argentina prices are   
   rising by more than 115%. So it shouldn’t be a great surprise that   
   Argentines on Sunday gave the most votes to presidential candidate Javier   
   Milei, an outsider promising to    
   close the central bank and replace the peso with the dollar.   
      
   Argentina, once prosperous but degraded by Peronist socialism, is bracing for   
   another currency crisis and owes $44 billion to the International Monetary   
   Fund. The economy is stalled. On Monday the peso fell more than 13% in the   
   black market, and the    
   central bank moved its official exchange rate to 350 to the dollar, a 22%   
   devaluation. The effective rate of 28-day government paper is now 209%,   
   according to Goldman Sachs. Who wouldn’t yearn for dollar assets in that   
   economy?   
      
   Mr. Milei, who holds a seat in Congress, wasn’t challenged in his primary   
   bid for the nomination of the La Libertad Avanza (Liberty Advances) party. But   
   since all candidates are on the multiparty primary ballot every four years and   
   voting is    
   technically mandatory, the exercise is widely considered to be a dry run of   
   the first round of the presidential election.   
      
   Pollsters had Mr. Milei getting around 20%, but they underestimated popular   
   resentment. He won more than 30% of the vote and finished first in 16 of the   
   country’s 24 provinces.   
      
   Two candidates of the ruling Peronist party together received less than 27%,   
   which shows how unpopular the government is. Two candidates vying for the   
   nomination of the center-right opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio   
   (Together for Change) received    
   28%. Patricia Bullrich won the Juntos race but had been expected to do much   
   better than her 17%. She’s tough on crime, an important issue. But her stint   
   in the failed government of center-right Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) may have   
   limited her upside.   
      
   The international press is portraying Mr. Milei as a crazy populist, and   
   there’s no doubt he’s disdainful of Argentina’s political    
   stablishment—left and right. He draws large crowds of young Argentines and   
   rails against the “entire political    
   caste, stupid and useless.”   
      
   Mr. Milei is an economist who favors limited government and blames   
   Argentina’s economic problems on suffocating taxation, hyper-regulation,   
   special-interest subsidies and protectionism. He wants to open markets, cut   
   public spending, end capital    
   controls and privatize state-owned enterprises. He’s also a social   
   conservative, but his appeal stems largely from his rage against the   
   establishment.   
      
   With international reserves in net-negative territory, the next president will   
   inherit an economic mess. If the prospect of a Milei presidency willing to   
   break with the status quo excites a third of voters, it also raises questions   
   about Mr. Milei’s    
   ability to govern if he wins. His party has only two seats in Congress, which   
   means he’d need to work with some of those he is lambasting now.   
      
   Much can happen between now and the first election round on Oct. 22. But Mr.   
   Milei’s showing has sent a message to Buenos Aires—and the world—that   
   the Argentine middle class may no longer accept a status quo that robs them of   
   the fruits of their    
   labor.   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/javier-milei-argentina-election-619b8ca4   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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