After enacting sweeping reforms in Argentina, President Javier Milei faced a major protest. Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets, hundreds of flights were grounded, and schools and businesses closed in protest of Milei’s radical attempt to fix the troubled South American country.<\/p>\n

Milei is a rarity; there aren’t many self-described libertarian heads of state in history. To avert economic disaster in a country facing huge deficits and a 160 percent<\/a> inflation rate (that has since spiked to over 211 percent<\/a>), he told the country things would likely get worse before they could get better.<\/p>\n

In his inaugural address<\/a>\u00a0on December 10, Milei acknowledged the daunting challenges ahead: “No government has received a worse inheritance than the one we are receiving….We neither seek nor desire the difficult decisions that must be made in the coming weeks. But unfortunately, we have no choice.”<\/p>\n

Ten days into his term, Milei issued<\/a> a “mega-decree” of more than 300 executive measures. He abolished national rent control, which had caused a 75 percent drop<\/a> in available apartments in Buenos Aires in 2022 and 2023. He repealed price controls, slashed subsidies, and fired<\/a>\u00a0more than 5,000 government employees. He allowed direct competition with Argentina’s government-owned airline, which he plans to privatize. And he defied the country’s powerful labor unions.<\/p>\n