News of op ed

As you are, as touched up.

Peculiar institutions

30-05-2026 05:15 President Javier Milei said that installing morality as a state policy would be a central pillar of his administration but his philosophy in real life seems much closer to the “might makes right” now being made fashionable by his idol Donald Trump

Lost in the waters.

Political waters

23-05-2026 05:47 The gratuitous political contamination of what should be a purely technical issue may bring needless complications.

milei's banana republic.

Reiterated Infrastructural Gaps Ignored

16-05-2026 06:51 Both the quantity and quality of Argentina’s public universities are up for discussion – a right which the government would earn if they were ready to pump more funds into areas which could fuel progress instead of just blindly cutting.

Milei and his Cabinet.

Taking liberties with liberty

09-05-2026 06:37 How long can we continue to take this government’s self-identification as libertarian seriously?

Manuel and Javi face up to the problems.

Missing the point

02-05-2026 00:28 The magnified Adorni scandal is a huge problem for the government, making nonsense of “morality as a state policy” from Milei’s state-of-the-nation speech or his “cultural battle,” but it also serves as a distraction from more serious problems.

Cracking up.

Problems of success?

25-04-2026 06:25 The transformation sought by President Javier Milei in Argentina runs into a delicate balance between the upward thrust of the new being created and the downward pull of the old being destroyed

Shouting against the data.

Uneasy lies the head

18-04-2026 00:01 With neither fiscal policy changes possible nor economic pickup likely in any near future and with investors continuing to hold back, President Javier Milei's government badly needs to change the subject

Milei and the glaciers.

The iceman goeth

11-04-2026 06:04 Resources are the name of the game in today’s world and the amendments to the 2010 Glaciers Law should be seen within that context.

Axel v Javier.

Yelling Personal Feats

04-04-2026 06:22 Milei and Kicillof might fight for the credit for a historic ruling but is not the real hero of Argentina’s growing energy surplus quite simply Vaca Muerta shale?

Nuncá mas. Memoria, verdad y justicia.

Open wounds

28-03-2026 05:57 Democracy is alive and well despite the wear and tear of over four decades – one consensus still intact despite the increasing polarisation and fragmentation of the political scenario.

Stepping back in time 50 years.

Fifty years after

21-03-2026 00:08 We should remember every day that 50 years ago there was a military dictatorship and count our blessings for a democracy equally capable of electing leftist populism and the far-right libertarian administration now ruling.

Betti in the Big Apple.

The Wall Street shuffle

14-03-2026 06:39 President Milei cannot be faulted for his misfortune in timing Argentina Week in New York for what was Iran Week for the rest of the world and he obviously occupied centre stage, but sometimes what happens off-Broadway can be more decisive.

Breaking Congress norms.

Wheels within wheels

07-03-2026 06:46 Milei’s insults only served to lend importance to the fading force of Kirchnerism, perhaps a deliberate strategy to preserve an electoral opponent virtually guaranteeing him victory.

Lion at Congress.

The lion roars tomorrow

28-02-2026 06:01 Let us hope that President Milei takes a newly favourable Congress seriously and presents a solid agenda for the parliamentary year ahead.

Chaplin, Fede and Pato.

Labour's love lost

21-02-2026 00:24 Analysis of the Labour Modernisation bill’s 200-plus articles was largely reduced to the “error” of halving sick leave pay – entirely typical of a modern compulsion to simplify complex issues for mass consumption.

The Rappi black hole.

Behind the times

14-02-2026 06:01 This labour reform bill is a starting-point towards less labour litigation and a more flexible job market but it is also running behind times which are moving much faster.

Caputo Adorni.

Tearing apart the rag trade

07-02-2026 07:18 Statements by Caputo and Adorni do not come out of nowhere but need to be seen as a continuation of the battle between a libertarian government intent on opening up the economy and an entrenched industrial sector.

Unlucky 13 for Milei?

An unlucky number

31-01-2026 06:55 The Milei administration would not seem to be superstitious in sending a bill to Congress to lower the age of criminal responsibility

Waking up from anti-woke?

Waking up from anti-woke?

24-01-2026 07:40 Milei’s three Davos speeches have had the common denominator of also being addressed to home audiences and Wednesday’s concessions to the World Economic Forum’s motto of the “spirit of dialogue” perhaps also reflect a new domestic political context following last October’s midterm triumph.

Three paths ahead.

What’s in a name?

17-01-2026 06:33 Radicalism prides itself on being an inflexible “ethic” which “breaks up rather than bend” in contrast to the Peronism veering wildly.

Venezuelan desires.

The Donroe Doctrine

10-01-2026 06:20 Trump has been explicit in placing democracy on the backburner in Venezuela.

2026: The year ahead.

The year ahead

03-01-2026 06:01 After a resounding midterm triumph, Milei must be tempted to run before he can walk – already looking beyond 2026 to 2027.

Tightening Santa's belt.

Tightening Santa’s belt

25-12-2025 05:54 The question is whether government policies are on course to translate the budget’s premises into anything remotely resembling reality.

Milei papercut.

'cause I’m the Taxman

20-12-2025 08:02 In restricting government to ever narrower circles, Milei is misreading the results of the last midterms. But Milei’s conclusion is that sister knows best.

Horns on the half-way man?

Halfway to heaven?

13-12-2025 06:30 The Milei Presidency at its halfway mark can most charitably be described as a work in progress.

Milei’s offside trap.

Milei’s offside trap

06-12-2025 06:41 A shady AFA might seem an easy target for polarisation but Milei could be playing with fire.

Growing pains for Milei.

Growing pains

29-11-2025 05:28 The challenge of sustained growth, via making the real economy more competitive with vastly improved productivity levels, is presented as a question of structural labour, tax and pension reforms but there are more immediate problems.

Agreement still in the lab.

Agreement still in the lab

22-11-2025 06:33 Does last month’s midterm triumph give President Javier Milei such authority that nobody dares to challenge him?

Angel Milei flying high with dollars.

Are second parts never any good?

15-11-2025 05:00 Ever since the petrodollars gobbled up by the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, the grim sequence of debt, default and debacle has been an all too central part of Argentina’s decline.

Apples falling far from the tree.

Apples falling far from the tree

08-11-2025 08:20 Many contemporary elections are won by intense minorities, with the accent more often on backlash than endorsement.

Milei purpled.

Nature abhors a vacuum

01-11-2025 07:00 These elections were so dominated by La Libertad Avanza and Fuerza Patria plus its allies that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that their combined votes fell well short of half the electorate.

New dawn for Argentina?

Tomorrow never knows

25-10-2025 05:55 While the markets vote every day, the ordinary citizen should make the most of their one moment when they are sovereigns with everybody awaiting their decision.

Washington does not believe in tears.

Washington does not believe in tears

18-10-2025 06:39 If the next crop of deputies and senators is to be chosen according to the slogan “libertad o kirchnerismo,” this will guarantee a further impoverishment of debate.

Milei and the midterms.

The jaws of defeat

11-10-2025 06:00 The biggest unknown in these midterms is surely how many citizens are going to turn out to vote in the first place.

Hunted by a red October.

Hunted by a red October

04-10-2025 06:26 The last few days have shown Trump’s support to be insufficient to overcome the loss of confidence in the libertarian administration, a problem which the midmonth snapshot with the Republican in Washington planned by Milei is hardly likely to change.

HAllo Javi

What’s new pussycat?

20-09-2025 07:14 Milei's best bet is to continue renouncing extremism to regain the middle ground.

Milei on his plane.

An emperor needs new clothes

13-09-2025 06:38 Nationalising a provincial contest into a plebiscite and advance opinion poll emerges as a colossal error, even if some argue that without the presidential figure La Libertad Avanza would have fared even worse.

Cast away.

The curtain rises

06-09-2025 07:16 The main contenders have sought to inject more importance into this election by nationalising the dispute, subordinating its result to a greater game, but this has only deepened the impoverishment of the debate.

Who's listening to the bribery scandal audios?

Audios rather more than hearsay

30-08-2025 06:37 No room for innocence where squeezing kickbacks out of the medicine for around a million disabled people is concerned – arguably the most vulnerable sector of society.

Milei: the anger and the fury.

Veto swings and roundabouts

23-08-2025 07:04 The best way for Milei to defend his cherished fiscal surplus would not be knee-jerk vetoes but to present a budget – something which will require thinking outside the box and not just the chainsaw.

Through a (bionic) glass darkly.

Through a (bionic) glass darkly

16-08-2025 06:47 Are universities wholly to blame for educational and cultural deficits long preceding entry into institutions of higher learning?

Thinking outside the box.

Thinking outside the box

09-08-2025 06:22 For both government and opposition, the question is more or less spending on pensions with few stopping to consider how more can come out of less.

Caputo, Milei, and an economic bomb in Argentina.

In whose interest is interest?

28-07-2025 15:43 Any recessive trend is unlikely to bite hard enough in the immediate term to affect the midterm results unduly but it could end up jeopardising Milei’s re-election ambitions.

AMIA attack anniversary.

A Massacre’s Impunity Abides

19-07-2025 05:27 It is impossible to measure the scandal of the continued impunity enjoyed by the 1994 terrorist bomb destruction of the AMIA Jewish community centre.

Number crunching as the clock ticks down.

Fiscal surplus versus political deficit

12-07-2025 06:02 The “forces of heaven” might be on the ascendancy in recent times but what politics needs is more agnostics with a pragmatic rather than dogmatic approach.

Yesterday’s Petrol Fiasco.

Yesterday’s Petrol Fiasco

05-07-2025 06:03 Manhattan judge Loretta Preska’s controversial ruling on the US$16-billion time-bomb compensating speculative interests for the nationalisation of YPF needs to be viewed in its electoral context as much as for its legal force.

Liberty not advancing for everybody.

Liberty not advancing for everybody

21-06-2025 06:37 Confirmation of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s prison sentence has gifted an increasingly divided Peronism a cause around which to rally in unity, but in the long term this cause may only serve to deepen the divisions.

Ground-breaking landmark ruling or the chronicle of a decision foretold?

Convicted, confirmed, confined

14-06-2025 06:41 Ground-breaking landmark ruling or the chronicle of a decision foretold?

If starvation wages are expected to bridge the vacuum between the research structures of the 20th and 21st centuries, there will not be any scientists left for a brave new world.

The gloomy science as gloom for science

07-06-2025 09:38 If starvation wages are expected to bridge the vacuum between the research structures of the 20th and 21st centuries, there will not be any scientists left for a brave new world.

Santiago's eye.

Enemies of the state

31-05-2025 06:36 Instructions against those who “erode … the political and institutional structure of the country” can be carried to the extreme of converting any criticism of the administration into a crime against the state – more to be expected from Communism than anarcho-capitalism.

Mouse. Cheese. Trap!

One small step or a giant leap?

24-05-2025 06:50 La Libertad Avanza’s triumph in the City has been celebrated as a virtual game-changer. Yet the cost of winning over the PRO electorate might have been starting to resemble that party.

Elections in Buenos Aires City.

All politics is local

17-05-2025 06:49 Tomorrow’s candidates should be judged as monitors of local governance rather than as projections of any national party. But before advising voters as to their perspective when casting their ballots, it is imperative to urge them to vote in the first place.

Corruption in Argentina.

Clean slates – for greenbacks only

10-05-2025 07:25 At least two of this week’s main news items may be considered further setbacks in the fight against corruption. Every suspicion of a meticulously manipulated Senate result instead of free votes of conscience, while those complying with the conditions of last year’s tax whitewash might ask themselves why they went to all that trouble – a black week for removing the stain of corruption with no guarantee against more to come.

Storm coming?

Will April showers bring May flowers?

03-05-2025 07:45 Critics of the exit from the ‘cepo’ currency and capital controls argue that it opens the door to speculative peso-dollar shuffles. Whether or not they are right will go much further towards defining the outcome of the October midterms than any cultural battles.

More than a nation mourns.

More than a nation mourns

26-04-2025 05:00 Rest in peace Franciscus.

Milei, Conan and the forces of heaven.

Floating on air?

19-04-2025 06:00 Milei might echo Alfonsín by proclaiming: “Happy Easter, the dollar is in order” but early days – a more total exit from currency and capital controls by Macri in in late 2015 was even smoother, without ensuring him a happy ending.

Pills for Milei.

Into More Frustrations

12-04-2025 05:06 A Ruby Tuesday for President Javier Milei while the world at large is in an acute age of uncertainty thanks to Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught.

Javier Thatcher.

A double date

05-04-2025 06:36 Milei has yet to realise (or admit, if he does realise) that Trump is taking the United States into precisely the same direction from which he himself is struggling to pull out Argentina.

Into More Frenzy.

Into More Frenzy

29-03-2025 06:11 Perhaps today’s economic situation is best explained by saying: “It’s the elections, stupid.”

Leafy Autumn Milei.

Forever Autumn?

22-03-2025 07:11 There is already too much polarisation in politics at large – instead of extremes clashing, there is a need to meet in the middle for a serious debate about a complex issue.

State responds to Bahía Blanca flood damage.

Bahía Blanca as a wake-up call

15-03-2025 07:16 The devastation in Bahía Blanca should serve to sweep away any illusion that state responsibilities can be abdicated in the name of the laws of the market.

Javier Milei appears at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland on February 22.

Davos, Davis and what next?

08-03-2025 06:00 Could there be method in the madness?

Milei's Supreme Court controversy.

Towards a supremo’s court

01-03-2025 06:27 Both the presidential Supreme Court nominees, Ariel Lijo and Manuel García-Mansilla, present problems. These are rather simpler in the latter case.

La $Libra no avanza.

La $Libra no avanza

22-02-2025 06:05 There can be no excuse for a President turning into an influencer for such a risky venture. A trained economist should always check the facts before reaching conclusions.

Baby Milei.

Exeunt severally

15-02-2025 06:26 Volatility would seem to be the middle name of the Milei administration.

Overvalued currency.

Super size peso

08-02-2025 06:46 The peso is a palpably overvalued currency. Denialism is not the solution but nor is devaluation.

milei caputo broken spanner

Into More Funds?

01-02-2025 00:01 There seems to be a complacent assumption in many government circles that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund are a slam dunk now that Donald Trump occupies the White House.

Milei and his Muskmobile.

A star is born(e)

25-01-2025 06:33 President Javier Milei returns home today from a stellar week abroad, but yet again Milei has wasted chances to promote overseas investment at an international forum.

Trump and Milei on fire.

Brave new world or tempest?

18-01-2025 06:49 Slaying the inflationary dragon is both the cornerstone of Milei’s economic policy and the key to electoral success, but the sequence between lower inflation and electoral triumph is not so linear.

Flotsam and jetsam not always adrift.

Flotsam and jetsam not always adrift

11-01-2025 06:39 While so much could happen in the country and the world in the next nine months, everything now points to the midterms going Milei’s way, even if it will be a relative victory.