News of buenos aires times

A Trump bump in the road

07-11-2026 00:46 “All good things come in threes” does not work for President Javier Milei after the recent hat-trick of adverse (at least for him) election results abroad.

Thumbs down for Donald Trump

06-11-2026 00:58 The Republicans got hammered in the midterms in large measure because they proved unable to defend the interests of the people who a mere two years earlier had given them their support.

by James Neilson

Politics is a dangerous sport

31-10-2026 00:07 Democracy cannot flourish unless politicians, civil servants and members of the Judiciary are held in high regard. In some countries at least, this was once the case, but in most it no longer is.

by James Neilson

Political escapism in Brazil

31-10-2026 00:00 Last Sunday’s run-off could hardly have been more polarised, yet both right and left could end up being the losers. The question of where do we go from here in the relationship between South America’s two biggest countries has been rendered far more acute by this week’s events.

Riding a roller coaster

26-09-2026 00:20 Perhaps Milei was what the country needed three years ago. However, this does not mean that he will be the best person to steer the country through the years that lie ahead.

by James Neilson

From words to deeds

12-09-2026 00:45 Discussing the efficacy of the sanctions or the wisdom of weaponising Vaca Muerta misses the main point of President Javier Milei’s Malvinas moves.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

The territorial imperative

12-09-2026 00:26 Milei is seeking to sell Argentina as a haven of legal security for foreign capital while threatening to punish companies, shareholders and directors participating in a project opposed on nationalistic grounds.

by Michael Soltys

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

ASEAN, as in the zone

22-08-2026 08:21 The creation of ASEAN in 1967 saw the region create unity out of division and harmony out of discord.

by Michael Soltys

March of the trolls

22-08-2026 05:54 Perhaps the most significant development is the government’s implied admission of economic stagnation for the first time when almost two-thirds of the year is over, accompanying a cautious relaxation of monetary policy.

Economic conundrums

15-08-2026 07:00 The Milei administration has yet to square the circle of taming inflation without recession.

Blame it on Sao Paulo

01-08-2026 12:17 It might well also be asked whether meddling in the domestic politics of other countries belongs in any presidential work list.

The days after

18-07-2026 07:30 Parliamentary democracy is far from being a synonym for productivity. Yet all that and more lies after the challenge of tomorrow’s World Cup final.

Consumer prices trump geopolitics

18-07-2026 07:26 Like its counterparts in most other countries, the US electorate is more interested in consumer goods than in geopolitical questions that, sooner or later, could have devastating consequences.

by James Neilson

A tale of two footballs

11-07-2026 00:27 The epic World Cup comeback against Egypt only stands to widen the gap between the squad of the two Lionels and all other institutions in Argentina.

Messi in Dallas, messy down here

27-06-2026 00:37 The separation of powers is alive and well in Argentina when it comes to corruption – regardless of whether the issue is Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni’s assets or the up to US$20 million stacked in the San Vicente mansion, the knee-jerk response of the political world is: “The matter belongs to the courts.”

The unsurprising fall of Keir Starmer

25-06-2026 16:22 From the word go, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer behaved as though he enjoyed the support of most of his country’s population, an illusion that was encouraged by the worshipful treatment he received from “progressives” in the media.

by James Neilson

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Host with the most

20-06-2026 05:45 Nothing unimportant is more important than football with its victories and defeats metaphors for life and death with nobody actually dying.

by Michael Soltys

From the sublime to the ridiculous

20-06-2026 05:40 In the past, countless ministers have been sacrificed to protect a President but now presidential popularity is being laid on the line to save a minister.

Artificial Intelligence and natural stupidity

13-06-2026 05:30 Capitulation to robots is always going to be a hard sell.

ANALYSIS – POLITICS & TECHNOLOGY

A robot oasis and billionaire’s playground in Argentina?

06-06-2026 07:02 Milei’s self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist libertarianism seems totally aligned with the idea of generating a robot oasis and a billionaire’s playground in Argentina.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

Human capital getting sidelined

23-05-2026 05:53 As has happened time and time again, the discrepancy between what seemed to be quite reasonable hopes and a dispiriting reality has bred discontent among the “overeducated and underemployed.”

by James Neilson

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.

Taking liberties with liberty

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

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.

The President and the Pope

25-04-2026 06:31 Trump was paying the pontiff a compliment by taking him seriously. Instead of treating Leo’s remarks as the maunderings of an unworldly holy man who should be praised for his idealism and then ignored, as so many regularly do, he thought the Pope’s allusions were worth responding to.

by James Neilson

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

Time could be running out for Milei

18-04-2026 00:01 Governments that have little to fear from an effective opposition soon fall prey to the internal squabbles politicians so greatly enjoy.

by James Neilson

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

Did the ayatollahs get one over on Trump?

11-04-2026 06:49 Even though Trump is desperately looking for an excuse to call it quits, he could change his mind yet again when it dawns on him that the remnants of the Iranian regime are making him look like a loser.

by James Neilson

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.

Milei gets a taste of his own medicine

03-04-2026 06:25 This is what tends to happen to holier-than-thou politicians who feel they are morally superior to their adversaries and make a habit of boasting about it.

by James Neilson

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.

A dark cloud that refuses to disperse

28-03-2026 05:55 The coup d’état of 1976, and its aftermath, continue to weigh heavily on the collective Argentine mind.

by James Neilson

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.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

A future which works

07-03-2026 06:53 Milei’s determination to open up one of the world’s most closed economies is moving at vastly superior speed to the painstaking parliamentary passage of the structural reforms local companies need to compete.

by Michael Soltys

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

After Maduro, Trump takes on the ayatollahs

17-01-2026 05:32 Having pledged himself publicly to “protect” protesting Iranians, Trump has left himself with precious little room in which to manoeuvre.

by James Neilson

The Donroe Doctrine

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

Existential angst is for Europeans

02-01-2026 08:40 In contrast to the many Europeans, Argentines have yet to resign themselves to collective failure.

by James Neilson

'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.

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.

The Goddess of Reason returns

06-12-2025 06:52 Academics are not the only people who see the difference between perceived truth and falsehood shrinking at an alarming rate thanks in large measure to machines that, in theory, should be making it far easier to tell them apart.

by James Neilson

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

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.

Snug in the arms of Uncle Sam

22-11-2025 06:41 For good or ill, it would appear that for the foreseeable future the United States will continue to be the only superpower worth taking into account.

by James Neilson