Will Javier Milei’s ‘shock therapy’ work?

The Argentinian peso has been devalued by 50 per cent overnight. Controls on exports have been scrapped, and the country’s ministry of culture is to be closed down. The health, labour, social development and education departments are also facing the chop. Argentina’s president Javier Milei – who vowed to deliver economic ‘shock treatment’ in his first speech on Sunday after formally taking office – has started a radical overhaul of the economy and begun what is by far the most interesting experiment in economics in the world right now. 

True, Milei may not have gone as far as some people might have expected. The plan to replace the peso completely with the American dollar has been shelved for now. So far, at least, the central bank has not been abolished, although given that it is currently presiding over an inflation rate of 140 per cent it could hardly complain if it was.