"Last month, with his sister embroiled in a corruption scandal, Mr Milei badly lost a legislative election in the province of Buenos Aires. He then suffered a series of stinging legislative losses. Markets panicked, worried that the defeat signalled the end of popular support for Mr Milei's economic-reform project, and the potential return of spendthrift Peronists. A sharp peso sell-off began."
"Since April, when the IMF launched yet another programme in Argentina, the peso has been floating within an exchange-rate band, the limits of which the Argentine government has vowed to defend. By mid-September the peso's official rate was testing the upper limit of that band, even briefly piercing it on September 17th to reach 1475 to the dollar. Over the following two days the Argentine central bank spent some $1bn of its scarce foreign-currency reserves to defend the currency."
"The political ideology known as libertarianism died yesterday in Argentina at the age of thirteen. While it had been around for quite a bit longer, its basic concepts never progressed beyond the early stages of adolescent brain development. Libertarianism-which asserted that society would be better off with minimal government, laws, and taxes-succumbed after chainsaw-wielding Argentine President Javier Milei asked the United States for a massive economic bailout due to his catastrophic leadership."
Argentina experienced a sharp peso sell-off after Javier Milei suffered major legislative defeats and a corruption scandal involving his sister reduced political support. Since April the peso floated inside an exchange-rate band established alongside an IMF programme, and the government vowed to defend that band. By mid-September the official rate tested the band's upper limit, briefly reaching 1475 per dollar, prompting the central bank to spend about $1bn of scarce foreign-currency reserves over two days. The central bank lacks sufficient reserves for prolonged intervention, so Milei sought external backing and financier Scott Bessent agreed to provide emergency support. Observers compared the bailout request to a collapse of libertarian ideology.
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