https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/23/business/javier-milei-argentina-dollerization-explainer/index.html
Such a move would effectively disband Argentina’s central bank, handing the reins of monetary policy — that is, the power to set interest rates and print more money — over to the US Federal Reserve. The Fed would continue to set the cost of borrowing based on the needs of the US economy, not Argentina’s.
Milei has argued that surrendering autonomy to Washington is a necessary step to instil discipline into Argentinian policymakers. It would mean Argentina would no longer be able to print money.
Is there anybody from Argentina here? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject. I work in kitchens, I'm able to listen to some analysis from the people I know from a given country, but I've never met someone from Argentina so I don't have any inside views besides for a few generalizations they made about South America. I know that a decent amount of the South American population sees the US as somewhat of a providing father figure to the continent. I HATE HATE HATE the war on drugs, however America's authoritarian enforcement of foreign drug laws is the closest thing to fighting the undebatably evil cartels that some of these people will ever get. Yes many people hate the war on drugs, but the cartels having power is undebatably the worse evil. At least America has to pretend to not be draining a nation of its valuable aspects, the cartels will just take it as brutally as they can when they can. And the cartels are rich enough that these South American countries can't even dream of paying their cops enough not to be corrupt. Taking the power of a competent sociopath like America who can give them some temporary shit over the power of an untrained normal human who will make sure they own shit. Even if the justification is just someone that supports appeasing the West, it gives more valuable info than I'd get just googling it.
However, this seems like pure Western appeasement that I'm not even sure would work. Argentina adopting USD as currency would give the US more control over Argentina. First off, I don't think Argentinian people support it. While I don't know anybody from Argentina specifically, but all the people I know from other South American nations are always skeptical at best about the US controlling their nation period. South Americans generally speaking, seem to widely value national self-determination. Logically speaking, I don't know how Cuba and Venezuela would be able to succeed in their worst moments if national self-determination wasn't a consistently held value amongst the people they rule over. Unless adopting USD would have advertisable effects on the population's material conditions, I don't see this going anywhere. However, assuming leaders like Bolsonaro infected other nations of South America, it could be a surprise that citizens pick the instant comfort of picking the west instead of the long term stability that comes with owning their country.
However, the American perspective is completely tied up with lithium. Belt and Road Initiative isn't perfect, but it's almost ALWAYS a better choice than letting America take over. Any nation south of America that isn't 1000 and 1 percent submissive to the United States is at risk at becoming the next "war on terror" so America can keep pumping out cheap battery powered devices. There's a reason that even though Mexico has been 1000 and 2 percent submissive to the US, republicans are still talking about declaring war on Mexico. They claim it's to fight the cartels, but it's really just for lithium control that has already been yielded to China.
This sounds like another Guaido, where nobody but the west is actually going to support this, but the west won't shut up about it.
He's made it to the run-off election and is polling less than 10-pts from the frontrunner Massa, in a climate where "throw the incumbents out!" is boiling over. These are the same conditions that gave us Bolsonaro in Brazil. The hard-right outsider running as an "anti-corruption" candidate becomes the protest-vote for an increasingly agitated popular base.
Far from the Guaido situation, where a Venezuelan back-bench MP was coronated President by the US State Department, this guy has a very real chance to win the election outright.
Well, tbf Bolsonaro came first in the first round of the election back in 2022. Milei could turn things around, but there's at least this key difference between candidates. He has to overcome that lead and that's no small feat.
Fair. Milei isn't the front-runner like Bolsonaro was in '18 or '22. But the dynamic is comparable.
I think he gives off
vibes more because of the extensive media coverage. The US financial sector is absolutely creaming itself at the possibility of a Milei presidency (nevermind how likely he is to fulfill his campaign promises).
There's a standing belief among western pollsters that Massa is at his ceiling of support and all the third-party voters will consolidate around Milei. No idea if that bares out. But its definitely possible.
I actually meant 2018, lol. Brain fart.
I really hope that's just propaganda. Though I've come to expect some really bad things from South American voters since this last fash-conservative wave of elected candidates.
People bombarding social media with the most hair brained propaganda definitely didn't hurt Bolsonaro either