Milei’s rise in popularity is surprising in a country where left-wing populism has been the norm for decades. His coalition—La Libertad Avanza, or “Liberty Advances”—aims to drastically cut government spending, deregulate private gun ownership, and even enact a controversial plan to privatize the market for organ donors.
Supplanting the Argentine peso with the U.S. dollar is the libertarian economist’s cornerstone proposal, an idea that has caught the attention of one prominent U.S. economist.
“Given Argentina’s institutions, there’s only one way forward: dollarization,” Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at the Johns Hopkins University, told The Epoch Times in an email. “Milei clearly understands this and has the right ideas about what to do with Argentina’s endemic currency problem—dump the peso.”
Formerly an economic adviser to the Reagan White House, Hanke also advised Argentine President Carlos Menem throughout the 1990s. The professor has been a decades-long proponent in favor of the South American country’s dollarization.
Milei’s Twitter feed features quotes from prominent free-market philosophers, such as early 19th-century French economist Frédéric Bastiat: “Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone.”
Milei also quoted mid-20th-century U.S. economist Murray Rothbard: “The State is a gang of thieves writ large—the most immoral, grasping, and unscrupulous individuals in any society.”
Hanke hopes for Milei’s success since currency reform is long overdue.
“I’ve been involved in the trials and tribulations of currency reform in Argentina for 34 years, primarily for over 10 years when I was advising President Carlos Menem and Minister Domingo Cavallo,” Hanke said. “I first proposed dollarization over 25 years ago to President Menem. It’s time to mothball the Central Bank of Argentina and the peso and put them in a museum and replace them with the U.S. dollar.”