If you’ve been paying attention to the political economy in the USA and abroad, you know there’s a chaotic tug-of-war out there. Light vs. dark, free markets vs. controlled markets, and sound economics vs. money-printer madness, among other opposing forces.
Most of the western world has been characterized by decades of big government and extreme market intervention. These qualities generally manifest in massive government deficits, asset bubbles, and rampant consumer price inflation.
For over 80 years, Argentina’s government was at the forefront of all things related to government meddling and mass money debasement. Countless sovereign defaults – including three in the 21st century alone – repeatedly burned international lenders. This, coupled with persistent, cash-printing sprees, continually torched local savings through brutal cycles of runaway hyperinflation.
Several years ago, the people of Argentina had finally had enough of the insanity. Javier Milei, a strange looking economist of the Austrian persuasion, was elected President. His mission? Put an end to massive government deficits and control inflation.
Almost three years have passed since the commencement of the Milei era. How is Argentina doing?
Today we check in with our friend and Buenos Aires, Argentina, resident, Joel Bowman, for an update. Mr. Bowman, if you don’t already know, has been closely observing and documenting what he calls the “Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age” in his fantastic Notes From the End of the World.
Is the experiment working?
Here we’ll turn it over to Bowman for a hard look at the numbers, the noise, and the titanic forces reshaping the Argentine economy.
Enjoy!
MN Gordon
P.S. We have no financial arrangement with Mr. Bowman and do not profit from publishing his work. We’re simply sharing this fascinating note with you because we find his unique perspectives to be valuable and believe you will too. If you’d like to discover more of Mr. Bowman’s work, head over to his website and subscribe to his newsletter. This will ensure you receive all his latest updates on the “Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age.”
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Forces of Nature
Tyranny vs Liberty at the End of the World…
“We take the State out of the way and give freedom back to the people.”
~ Javier Milei, June 2026
Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina…
Freedom and tyranny… inflation and deflation… Sydney Sweeney and Lindsay Clancy…
The world is brimming with opposing forces, dear reader. Whether in the realm of politics, economics, culture, etc., the phenomenon remains the same. Good struggles against evil… light against darkness… knowledge against ignorance…
In the natural world, too, stasis is but an illusion. A trick of the eye. Providential prestidigitation, if you will. This is true on the micro as well as the macro level.
From the tiniest subatomic particles to the imposing Himalayan mountain ranges, everything around us is subject to these immense and antagonistic forces.
On the micro scale, scientists have measured what they call “virtual particles,” which are constantly popping into and out of existence.
Quark-antiquark… particle-antiparticle… matter-antimatter… far from a stable foundation, the invisible world is rather a ceaseless tempest of kinetic chaos.
At the geological level, meanwhile, the processes of isostasy (vertical) and plate tectonics (horizontal) ensure that even our laziest mountains are always “on the move.”
Constant Change
In actuality, everything is in flux. “Panta rhei,” as the pre-Socratic philosopher, Heraclitus, reckoned. “Everything flows.”
Heraclitus called this process enantiodromia (lit. “running contrariwise”), whereby all things are in the process of becoming their opposite.
“Living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old, are the same,” he wrote, around 500 BC, “for the latter change into the former, and the former change back into the latter.”
Down at this End of the World, in the antipodean south, titanic forces are playing out in the all-too-human realm of politics. Patient readers want to know how the “Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age” is playing out. Herewith, an update…
Almost three years have passed since Javier Milei assumed the presidency of Argentina and, needless to say, the country has undergone a tremendous change during that short timeframe.
When he was first elected, the outspoken sideburnian promised to take his trademark chainsaw to the soft underbelly of the State, slashing the Leviathan back to size. He also promised to slay the inflation beast… unlock the dynamic forces of the free market… vanquish deficits and deficit spending… and return the economy to a path of growth, one in which sane people may even think to invest…
In short, he promised to do the very opposite of what the “casta politica” had spent the better part of the past three generations doing before him… inflating the peso into oblivion, chaining the market down with over-regulation, centralizing political power in the dark heart of the State, and generally grinding long-suffering Argentines into poverty and immiseration.
How’s it going thus far?
The Hyperinflation Hydra
When Milei told those gathered at his inauguration speech “no hay plata” (there is no money), inflation was running at a white hot 25.5% per month. To the mind of an economist (Milei is a former econ professor and keen adherent of the Austrian School of Economics), this was Public Enemy #1.
The latest official inflation print, published last week, showed monthly inflation continuing its earthbound trajectory, coming in at 1.7% for the month of August, its lowest level in over a year. From INDEC:
The monthly figure is down 93% since the man with the motosierra took office, a clear victory for workers and savers, particularly those clinging to the lowest rungs of the economic ladder, about whom innumerate collectivists pretend to care so much about. The IMF forecasts inflation at about 25% annually by end-of-2026, roughly where the Peronists had left it monthly.
And by what spooky magic did Milei & Co. manage to bring the hyperinflationary hydra to heel?
[Trigger warning: Members of congress, the mainstream media and established, economic academia are advised to read the following passage in a safe space of their choosing.]
Employing a curious (and heretofore little-known) concoction of fiscal discipline, monetary restraint, and balance sheet hygiene, Milei was able to do what politicians the world over so often claim but never seem to manage: keep an election promise.
The not-so-secret spell was even communicated directly via the BCRA’s own March 2026 Monetary Policy Report, where it explicitly reads (translated):
“The establishment of fiscal balance, the elimination of monetary financing to the Treasury, the correction of distortions in relative prices and the strengthening of the Central Bank’s balance sheet contributed to reducing inflation.”
In other words, the spooky magic was really just sound(er) money all along. Who could have guessed?!
Growth Matters
As for economic growth, Milei’s La Libertad Avanza libertarian party inherited an economy that shrank 1.9% in Q4 alone. After the initial “austerity shock,” in which massive public works boondoggles were put on notice and tens of thousands of “gnocchis” given their marching orders, the economy roared back to life.
Over 2025 and 2026, the Argentine economy is on track to grow by just over 8% in real terms. That’s about twice the pace of growth in the US and Australia (4.4% and 4%, respectively)… and more than triple that of the EU and UK (2.6% and 2.4%, respectively). Likewise is Argentina handily outpacing its regional neighbors, with Brazil and Chile back at +4.8%, and Uruguay at +4.4% cumulative real GDP growth over the 2025-26 period.
Such a turnaround has not gone unnoticed, at least by those outside the legacy media, to whom concepts such as free markets and sound money are anathema to their core philosophy: “From each according to his ability, from each according to his ability.”
In the two years and nine months Milei has been in office, the so-called “country risk” has plummeted. That is, Argentina’s EMBI country-risk premium was around 1,900 basis points when Milei took office. Today it’s hovering around 490 bps. That’s approximately a 74% collapse.
Perhaps the most conspicuous result of this can be seen in Milei’s RIGI initiative (the Large Investment Incentive Regime). Open to qualifying investments over $200M, the RIGI initiative aims to guarantee tax, customs, regulatory and legal certainty to large scale investors for decades to come, essentially setting up a roadmap for ongoing economic stability in the country.
According to the RIGI website (translated):
“As of September 2026, there are 23 approved RIGI projects representing about $49.8 billion of committed investment and roughly 100,800 direct and indirect jobs.”
And that’s just the beginning. Last month, newswires reported that figure could soon double, thanks to interest in Argentina’s massive Vaca Muerta shale gas fields.
“Aug 13 (Reuters) – Argentina LNG on Thursday submitted an application to participate in the country’s investment ?scheme to develop its integrated liquefied natural ?gas (LNG) project with a total investment of $51 billion, state oil firm YPF said in a statement.
“The project is ?backed by YPF along with energy firms ?Eni and XRG, and seeks to develop ?the country’s Vaca Muerta shale formation into ?LNG exports for the international market, the statement ?said.”
A hundred billion here… a hundred billion there… all of a sudden, you’re talking real money, a real country, and a real future.
Ah, but don’t count your dead cows just yet, dear reader. The forces of “free markets, free minds and free people” are met head-on by opposing energies of an altogether more sinister kind.
To be continued…
Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
founder of Notes from the End of the World
P.S. For all of Bowman’s latest musings head over to his website. While you’re there, subscribe to his newsletter for all his latest analysis and insights on “Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age” as they’re reported in real time.
