Weeks before Argentina’s November 2023 presidential election, which saw the anarcho-capitalist economist Javier Milei ascend to power, 108 leading left-wing economists, including Thomas Piketty, Jayati Ghosh, and others penned an open letter denouncing the presidential front-runner. They wrote, “while apparently simple solutions may be appealing, they are likely to cause more devastation in the real world in the short run, while severely reducing policy space in the long run.”

Milei’s proposals were quite simple: abolish Argentina’s central bank, deregulate the economy, radically downsize the size and scope of the federal government, open up trade, and pursue the dollarization of the economy. While some of his most sweeping reforms have yet to take place due to opposition from the legislature, Milei used all options at his disposal to bring immediate relief to an economy and citizenry afflicted by decades of Peronism.