[ad_1]
Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Roula Khalaf has chosen her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
On the floor of the World Economic Forum, neighbors wearing headsets gasped slightly when Javier Millay blamed all political movements except his own for the West’s woes. .
“They profess to be communists, fascists, Nazis, socialists, social democrats, national socialists, Christian democrats, neo-Keynesians, progressives, populists, nationalists, globalists. There’s not much difference. They all argue that the state should steer every aspect of an individual’s life,” Argentina’s liberal president told an attentive audience last week.
Corporate executives exchanged amused glances. There was occasional laughter. It was just one of many surprising lines in Milais’ 20-minute speech at Davos, her first overseas trip since the November election. He warned that the WEF participants, whom the economics professor described as “heroes” of the capitalist world, had been “co-opted” by neo-Marxists, radical feminists and climate change activists.
This speech received a big round of applause. “I’m impressed,” confessed one European private equity veteran who passed me on the way to the exit. Later that day, one fund manager claimed that there was “some truth” hidden beneath Millay’s provocative surface. The Davos elite were being lectured about getting lost, and they loved it.
It wasn’t just Millais’ determinedly pro-business attitude that impressed me. “He’s intrigued because he told voters he was going to cut benefits and state aid, and he was elected on a platform of austerity,” said one WEF attendee.
This warm welcome received positive comments from the IMF, Argentina’s major creditor. The Washington-based agency agreed to spend the money after Milley’s administration sought to reduce the budget deficit and devalue the peso. IMF Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said in Davos that the new government has “moved boldly to correct some of the misalignments that exist in the economy.”
JP Morgan’s No. 2 Daniel Pinto, an Argentine and WEF regular, was also bullish. Millais’ government is “committed to all the right things in the economy” and said he hoped the measures would “end 80 years of economic decline”.
The prospect of free market policies led several participants to liken the support of business elites to Wall Street’s support of Donald Trump. But Milley, who was also seen brandishing a chainsaw on the campaign trail to symbolize his plans to downsize the state, somehow seemed a more credible advocate of deregulation because of his educational background, one person said. suggested.
Others speculated that some of the praise may be part of a cynical move over some of Millais’ planned privatizations of dozens of state-owned enterprises. “I was surprised that some bankers were so positive about Mr. Millais’ economic theory,” Allianz Chief Economist Ludovic Soubran said after the speech. “I’m wondering if it’s not a pure vested interest. I can smell a big wave of privatization coming and the imposition of that investment banking obligation.”
But many, perhaps naively, took comfort in the belief that Millay’s most radical ideas would be tempered by a team of adults around him. One executive who attended said the CEOs’ private meetings with Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, Chief of Staff Nicolas Posse and Economy Minister Luis Caputo made a positive impression. “I felt they were professional,” he said.
Sure enough, upon returning from the Swiss Alps, the Argentine president was forced to make concessions on a sweeping reform bill currently being debated in Congress, in which Milay’s party holds a minority of seats. The privatization of state-owned oil major YPF is no longer included. This is a sign that the liberal politician may have to compromise with the neo-Marxist forces he was quick to denounce at Davos.
[ad_2]
Source link
