Just a few months ago, conservative economists were cheering the “Argentina miracle,” President Javier Milei’s tough-love approach to free-market reforms. Now the country is facing a deepening economic crisis that the Trump administration, its populist ideological allies, is promising unusual interventions to stem.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “all options” are on the table after a weak showing for Milei’s party in provincial elections last week jolted investors and forced the country to start selling “every last dollar” to defend the peso, Argentina’s economy minister said Friday. Milei is set to meet Trump in New York, where the president is attending the United Nations annual assembly.
Praising Milei’s “fiscal discipline and pro-growth reforms,” Bessent said the US could bolster the pesos or buy Argentinian government bonds outright. The Treasury’s catch-all basket for global economic cleanup, called the Exchange Stabilization Fund, has been used in novel ways before, but snapping up foreign debt is unusual. “Uncle Sam is underwriting Mr. Milei’s laboratory,” says The Economist.