Kenneth Rogoff: evaluation

Transcript context

…Is Milei going to make it succeed in Argentina? What does it depend upon? I hope so. I think he’s the best chance that Argentina’s had in a long time, which is, fair to say, a very low bar. The thing that he’s done that I have not seen before is balancing the budget. If you’re a big borrower and you keep defaulting, a starting point is figuring out how not to have to borrow money, and he’s managed to do that. I don’t know that all his libertarian visions necessarily will come to pass, but he’s provided some stability, bringing inflation down. It’s so sad. Argentina, as you know, was one of the richest countries in the world by any measure at the turn of the 20th century in 1900. Now they’re a lower middle-income country. Their per capita income is below Brazil, which is hard to get your head wrapped around. I think there are many reasons, but certainly Peronism, socialism has not done well by Argentina. But has he balanced the budget? I know he announced a balanced budget, but this is April 2025, and they just borrowed $20 million from the IMF. It doesn’t sound like a very balanced budget.…

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