News of buenos aires times

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A cyberpunk at the helm

15-02-2025 06:10 Is Milei an astute operator who is merely playing the role of a foul-mouthed cyberpunk or is he simply showing the world the kind of person he really is?

by James Neilson

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.

So long to 2024... and welcome to 2025

28-12-2024 16:41 The Milei presidency begins this year riding the crest of a wave but neither the rest of the world nor the existence of black swans can be ignored and nor is the economy the only issue.

Milei is still very much in charge

14-12-2024 15:37 The success or failure of the far-reaching programme Milei devised will depend on whether or not most members of the political fraternity have learned enough from their many errors.

by James Neilson

Home away from Rome

30-11-2024 05:06 Returning Argentina to the world is not a straight or single line like any flight abroad – nor for that matter like domestic economic policy.

Milei books a seat on the Trump express

16-11-2024 05:52 Though Milei expects Trump to lend him a helping hand on the financial front, he must be worried by his determination to surround the US with sky-high protectionist walls.

by James Neilson

Fear and loathing in the US

02-11-2024 06:42 About the only thing Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agree upon is that, unless one of them wins, democracy will die in the United States.

by James Neilson

A most unappetising choice

26-10-2024 05:32 The choice, then, is between a blustering egotist and an almost comically vacuous lady.

by James Neilson

There are no easy answers in education

12-10-2024 06:59 Living as we do in an egalitarian age, many educationalists are reluctant to take into account another unfortunate fact: people have different talents

by James Neilson

Reducing the issue

12-10-2024 06:16 Both sides fall into the error of reducing this issue to a budget tussle without bringing up the major structural problems of university education.

Untidily Crumbling Radicals

28-09-2024 06:05 The Unión Cívica Radical crisis perhaps stems from standing or falling from being the men in the middle in many senses – representing a middle class facing extinction and a middle ground squeezed out by polarisation.

by Michael Soltys

Israel’s terrible swift sword

21-09-2024 06:20 Israel not only tore apart Hezbollah’s communications’ network and undermined its morale, but also scored a major propaganda triumph. For a small country whose very survival depends entirely on its military prowess, this is a matter of literally vital importance.

by James Neilson

A window of opportunity for autocrats

31-08-2024 05:37 Donald Trump is far from being the only North American politician who would like to see his country leave the rest of the world to its own wretched devices.

by James Neilson

Libertarian entrapment

31-08-2024 05:21 The paradox of a libertarian government revering the free market while unable to exit bureaucratic Kirchnerite capital controls has already drawn comment but the reduction of the PAIS tax exposes another contradiction.