News of analysis

Milei’s cuts are making credit harder to collect in Argentina

04-06-2025 10:30 Just over a year and a half since Javier Milei took office, businesses and households are under strain from stagnant wages and lingering inflation.

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

CFK's return risks dividing opposition in boon for Milei

03-06-2025 14:22 Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's decision to run in September’s legislative elections in Buenos Aires Province will set the stage for the national midterm vote the following month.

ECONOMIC POLICY

Milei’s FX gambit sparks sharpest demand for dollars since 2019

02-06-2025 17:31 Demand for dollars in Argentina at its highest since 2019 after President Javier Milei all but eliminated foreign-exchange restrictions.

Politics – Analysis

From ‘Caputito’ to ‘Fat Dan’ – weird scenes of digital disinformation

31-05-2025 06:39 Milei and his digital pit-bulls appeal to freedom of expression while relying on manipulative and even false information to get their message across, while fostering censorship and hate of the traditional media. Freedom of speech for those who express the same kind of things as me, censorship for the rest.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

ESPIONAGE & FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

SIDE: from the sewers to the forces of heaven

31-05-2025 06:38 Until now, the path taken by Javier Milei’s “forces of heaven” is no different from their predecessors.

by Javier Calvo

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Where angels fear to tread

31-05-2025 06:33 The demolition job suffered by PRO in the City has most provinces now thinking twice about advancing their elections and exposing local hegemonies to the forces of heaven.

by Michael Soltys

As I see it

Censorship is making a comeback just about everywhere

31-05-2025 06:28 Milei has a habit of shouting “Freedom, damn it!” whenever the opportunity arises, but he is clearly an authoritarian at heart who does not take kindly to criticism.

by James Neilson

Analysing Argentina

Milei chooses to ignore emerging consensuses

31-05-2025 06:23 With less than five months to the midterm vote, nothing seems to be standing in the way of a good result for the government. But Milei 2025 should already start thinking about Milei 2027

by Marcelo J. García

ANALYSIS: SHOCK THERAPY

Milei intervenes in currency market despite letting peso float

28-05-2025 11:36 Argentina’s government has intervened in the currency markets to influence the peso’s value and is likely to miss reserve accumulation targets.

DISCREDIT & DISTRACTION

Darín and Milei’s online army: empanadas or rotten fish

27-05-2025 14:43 Argentina’s government, along with its army of online trolls and sympathetic journalists, used the price of empanadas to mock Ricardo Darín and distract from the economic crisis. Viral mockery and aligned media coverage helped them avoid talking about frozen wages, austerity, and the loss of purchasing power.

by Nicolas Gonzalez

PRICE COMPLAINTS

Milei officials beef with Darín over price of a dozen empanadas

26-05-2025 20:43 Actor Ricardo Darín draws Milei administration’s ire by complaining about the price of a dozen empanadas.

MILEI’S AUSTERITY MEASURES

Six provinces demand over US$9 billion from national government

26-05-2025 14:58 Provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, La Rioja, Formosa, Santiago del Estero and Santa Fe – mostly all opposition controlled – are demanding US$9.376 billion in outstanding debt from President Javier Milei’s government.

by Gonzalo Martínez

As I see it

Milei wants to paint Argentina violet

24-05-2025 06:49 Milei and his sister are well aware that political loyalties usually owe more to a person’s sense of belonging to a vaguely defined community than to reasoned arguments. Handouts can help, but peer pressure counts for more than anything else.

by James Neilson

Campaign comments

Milei’s purple patch

24-05-2025 06:38 The headlines all reflect a Milei triumph and a PRO catastrophe (the government objectives in almost equal measure), both accurate enough but also relative.

by Michael Soltys

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Battle royale

24-05-2025 06:27 Politically, Milei is the son of fragmentation. Now, he’s consolidating his forces thanks to the weakness of dispersed opponents.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

Analysing Argentina

A whirlwind of votes, a black hole of dollars

24-05-2025 06:06 Argentines know their history, and they have enjoyed spending sprees in the past at the cost of the Central Bank, which invariably ended in economic catastrophe: in the late 1970s, in the 1990s, in the mid- and late 2000s. Milei will have to work hard to convince them that things will not be as they were.

by Marcelo J. García

ELECTIONS 2025: BUENOS AIRES CITY

30% in the City – just how well did La Libertad Avanza do?

20-05-2025 16:34 All the polls point to an Argentina split down the middle. Within those two universes increasingly extreme stances coexist on both sides.

ELECTIONS 2025: BUENOS AIRES CITY

City election reveals Argentina’s new democracy

19-05-2025 15:49 The internal rivalry within the right has finally been settled with Milei’s victory on Macri’s home turf.

by Eduardo Fidanza

ELECTIONS 2025: BUENOS AIRES CITY

PRO versus La Libertad Avanza: Chronicle of a death foretold?

18-05-2025 23:26 With the necessary caveats, the time that passed between the 2023 election and this weekend’s elections in Buenos Aires City could be seen as a remake of ‘The Sixth Sense’: PRO had been “dead” all along – but didn’t know it.

by Juan Luis González

Analysing Argentina

Re-election in 2027? It’s Milei’s to lose

17-05-2025 06:53 Milei has at hand all the variables that will determine his future. Winning or losing will depend on how he handles them. The more pragmatic and less ideological, the better.

by Marcelo J. García

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

They also serve who only stand and wait

17-05-2025 06:31 Electoral tides notoriously shift in the final week and even the last minute.

by Michael Soltys

As I see it

Being pope in an irreligious age

17-05-2025 06:28 Leo XIV faces a most difficult dilemma.

by James Neilson

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

More to lose than to win

16-05-2025 10:15 In the City, the battle for first place is less interesting than the struggle between the Mileis and the Macris.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

BLOOMBERG - ANALYSIS

Inflation slowed in April amid currency policy change

14-05-2025 16:52 Annual inflation slowed for a 12th month to 47.3%, reports INDEC; Price increases were led by food and non-alcoholic beverages.

ANALYSIS: SHOCK THERAPY

How Milei keeps peso strong ahead of midterm vote

14-05-2025 12:00 President Milei's government doubles down on a strong peso strategy, making it the cornerstone of his midterm election campaign.

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Fernández de Kirchner’s present points to Milei’s future

10-05-2025 07:55 Like Milei today, Fernández de Kirchner and Macri once believed their power was unlimited and their future bright. The way they engaged with their adversaries only came back later to haunt them.

by Marcelo J. García

OPINION & ANALYSIS

New songs and Peronism

10-05-2025 07:50 Kirchnerism has no lyrics for its new songs – every intervention by CFK against Milei is always geared to the economic terrain, but from the perspective of his collapse and not improving on his achievements.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

As I see it

Milei looks like a one-trick pony

10-05-2025 07:45 Chainsaws are great but they can maim or even kill users who are too weak or too clumsy to handle them properly.

by James Neilson

EDITORIAL

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.

POLITICS & COMMUNICATION

Milei: Hate, peace, Popes and social media

10-05-2025 07:21 The Milei administration built its strength on synthetic power and effectively navigated the first part of the presidency. With the campaign fully underway, La Libertad Avanza will once again rely on their not-so-secret weapon.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Four-by-four voting

10-05-2025 07:20 Next weekend’s City race hogs the electoral limelight but there is voting even closer in time – like tomorrow when four provinces will be advancing their midterms.

by Michael Soltys

ANALYSIS: SHOCK THERAPY

Corporate defaults start piling up as Milei policies kick in

07-05-2025 12:28 As Javier Milei removes the distortions that once characterised Argentina’s economy, companies that bulked up on debt by exploiting exchange rate gaps are hurting.

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Milei’s Macri mirror

03-05-2025 07:14 Javier Milei and Luis Caputo want the economy to be booming when the country goes to vote in October. The question is how much it will cost them – and the country.

by Marcelo J. García

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The great debate

01-05-2025 09:39 The absurd multiplicity of 17 list-heading candidates for 30 City Legislature seats can be boiled down into a triangle of the PRO, libertarian and Peronist blocs, although this does not necessarily translate into only three candidates since others stand to make inroads.

by Michael Soltys

ARGENTINA-CHINA RELATIONS

Chinese business interests await gesture from Milei towards Xi

01-05-2025 09:18 Over-enthusiasm for the United States has damaged links with China, hampering political moves towards investment and trade agreements. A presidential trip to the Asian power is the key to smoothing the acrimony.

by Eugenia Muzio

GUEST COLUMN

Batakis: IMF betting on Milei because his failure would also be theirs

01-05-2025 07:42 This is a “political loan,” if not to say a campaign contribution, as in 2018.

ANALYSIS: SHOCK THERAPY

Savers buying up dollars after Milei lifts currency controls

30-04-2025 12:08 Savers are going back to the bank to buy dollars after President Javier Milei granted them complete freedom to do so.

Analysing Argentina

The shepherd who lost his country

26-04-2025 05:00 Argentina electing Milei, just as an Argentine was running the Vatican on a unifying message, is as if John Paul II had seen his Polish compatriots vote for a version of Joseph Stalin, rather than Lech Wałęsa.

by Marcelo J. García

GUEST COLUMN

Malaysia’s capital control (cepo) success – a journey beginning in Buenos Aires

19-04-2025 06:03 Malaysia’s success highlights the importance of policy credibility, clarity of purpose and exit strategy in the use of capital controls.

POLITICS & ECONOMY – ANALYSIS

Milei dreams of re-election – with IMF's help

19-04-2025 06:00 Whether signing an IMF deal represents a “day of liberation” or one of mourning, it lifts a cloud of uncertainty and allows the political ecosystem to focus on upcoming elections.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

Analysing Argentina

Milei and the bicycle temptation

19-04-2025 06:00 The Milei government is confident it can make it to the midterm elections in October without major volatility. But this relative calm — won by force of debt — should not obscure the storm that was brewing before the cash injection.

by Marcelo J. García

Campaign comments

First day of the rest of the year

19-04-2025 06:00 Economists have hailed the exit from the cepo as a milestone but this columnist hesitates to consider it an electoral game-changer – there is both too much and too little time for that.

by Michael Soltys

ANALYSIS: SHOCK THERAPY

Milei risks reigniting inflation by floating Argentina’s peso

16-04-2025 12:35 Decision to ease currency controls is having an impact in the real economy. Retailers and importers are cautiously adjusting their prices as the peso weakens. And some fear it could spark inflation.

ECONOMY – ANALYSIS

IMF bets billions on Milei’s chainsaw to avert past debacles

13-04-2025 08:50 Frontloading disbursements is a controversial move that increases the IMF’s exposure to its biggest debtor, just as Milei faces the same policy dilemmas that have doomed his predecessors.

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Milei gains 'breathing room' from his ties with Trump

12-04-2025 11:54 The support President Milei has garnered from the Trump administration stands in stark contrast to the mounting challenges on the home front.

by Pablo Varela

Global politics – Analysis

Trump, Milei and how to lose the trust of markets and voters

12-04-2025 05:37 Trump stepped back from the edge, at least momentarily, even though he is keeping his finger on the trigger.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

Analysing Argentina

Careful Javier, the ‘caste’ smells blood

12-04-2025 05:29 Legislators who had until now been cooperative or aloof toward confrontation with Milei are changing their tune, in line with what they hear from their constituencies.

by Marcelo J. García

Campaign comments

And so it begins

12-04-2025 05:22 This year’s midterm voting begins tomorrow in the major province of Santa Fe with the constituent assembly elections.

by Michael Soltys

BLOOMBERG - FEATURE

Milei tries erasing Argentina’s history to lure foreign investment

08-04-2025 09:04 Argentina’s president is desperate to woo foreign investors. But he's had more success tearing down physical symbols of the old guard than untangling the web of red tape it left behind.