Argentina’s Basket Case Economy Got Javier Milei Elected

Just three months ago, the election of political outsider and self-described anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei as Argentina’s next president seemed ludicrous.

Neither the Peronists on the left (who have dominated the country’s politics for decades) nor the moderate right (which has occasionally punctuated the Peronists’ dominance) imagined that a relative newcomer to politics, nicknamed El Loco (The Madman) and pushing an extreme policy agenda, would win with such a clear margin—12 percentage points—over his contender, Sergio Massa, Argentina’s minister of the economy.

While it has become fashionable to try to make sense of these victories by pointing to a perfect storm in which a series of unfortunate events come together, Milei’s victory is more the outcome of a slow march toward collective desperation resulting from dire economic performance.

Read more at The Daily Beast.