Despite the reformers’ endless efforts to encircle mankind, there are those who persist beyond the broad extent of their casted nets. In the backwaters of the Republic, for instance, the distant rumble and flicker of Saturday night hootenannies still befall yonder the mighty oak groves.
In defiance of all things good and proper, the unconsecrated gather under the pale moonlight and jig step to zydeco washboard rhythms while downing tipples of corn syrup and fermented grain. These barn stompers certify that, even in this era of big government and mass fentanyl addiction, there remain places in the lower forty-eight where freedom reigns.
Across the planet there are pockets of liberty where individuals can use gas burning stovetops while safely out of the reach of the long arm of the law. These places are uniquely exceptional with their own distinct rhythms and rhymes. But, in common, they’re places where people’s only demand of government is to be left alone.
Similarly, the backwoods of the old world, rare as they may be, have not been entirely defamed. Though old world songs are more rigid – and drinks more dry – there are still places where people come together with passion, and without interference, to dance the polka behind the town square.
Davos, Switzerland, located along Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, is not one of these places. For 51 weeks out of the year it’s a wealthy enclave and ski resort. But for one week in January, the place is overrun by business, political, and academic reformers, at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF).
This week the big shindig – the 55th annual WEF – went down. Here we’ll attempt to touch on some of the highpoints…
Arranging People’s Lives
The Davos illuminati’s primary theme at this year’s WEF was ‘Collaboration for the Intelligent Age.’ The agenda focused on the five topics of: reimagining growth, industries in the intelligent age, investing in people, safeguarding the planet, and rebuilding trust. The general refrain in these topics is how governments and businesses can go about arranging people’s lives.
By now you should be fully aware that the term ‘reimagining’ is code for central planning. For example, the recent wildfires in Los Angeles were still burning hot when California Governor Gavin Newsom announced he was organizing a Marshall Plan to reimagine L.A. 2.0. The burned areas, no doubt, provide a fresh laboratory for central planners to employ their 15-minute city concepts for corralling and controlling the citizenry.
The WEF 2025 opening film includes a montage of human industrialization from its dawn to the present. This was followed by a note that nearly 3,000 leaders from over 130 countries were coming together to tackle some of the world’s most urgent and complex challenges.
Yet despite the impressive attendance numbers the quality was lacking. Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all wisely skipped the event.
Of the G7 nations, the only head of state that attended in person was outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. President Trump phoned it in with a virtual address, saying he will “demand that interest rates drop immediately.”
This is a dramatic change from 10 years ago when the WEF was widely attended by presidents and prime ministers, who often delivered keynote speeches. That was before globalization stalled out and countries began moving to establish their own respective Trump style America First policies.
Nonetheless, one very important head of state did make it this year. Specifically, the President of Argentina, Javier Milei…
Anti-State
Milei, who took office on December 2023, is an anti-state, libertarian freedom lover. This puts him at odds with the popular political leadership of the day. Where most of the Davos crowd believes more government is the solution to all of humanities ails, Milei believes government is the problem.
Milei, in support of his cause, has 100 years of socialist policies in Argentina he can point to. This era of extreme government control and central planning has been characterized by fiscal deficits, government defaults, currency devaluations, hyperinflation, widespread poverty, corruption, and the complete strangulation of the economy. Milei, as promised, has taken a chainsaw to all of it.
At last year’s WEF, Milei delivered a message to business leaders that went counter to the popular Davos attitudes:
“Do not be intimidated by the political caste or by parasites who live off the state. Do not surrender to a political class that only wants to stay in power and retain its privileges. You are social benefactors. You are heroes. You are the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we’ve ever seen.
“Let no one tell you that your ambition is immoral. If you make money, it’s because you offer a better product at a better price, thereby contributing to general wellbeing.
“Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself. You are the true protagonists of this story and rest assured that as from today, Argentina is your staunch and unconditional ally.”
These words are important. The fact that Milei said them at Davos, directly to the political class, adds to their significance.
Milei Returns to Davos
Over the last year, Milei has made good on his promise to take a chainsaw to government regulations, bureaucracy, and red tape. Moreover, his efforts are bearing fruit.
So far, he has already accomplished what was thought to be impossible. He’s eliminated the nation’s fiscal deficit for the first time in 123 years. In doing so, he’s cut the size of the federal government from 18 ministries to eight and rescued the Argentine peso from near hyperinflation.
Business leaders and investors are taking note. Argentina’s Merval stock index was the top returning stock exchange in the world in 2024 – rising 172 percent.
This week, following his attendance at President Trump’s inauguration, Milei returned to Davos. There, he continued his tradition of speaking unpopular truths to the political elites.
“The mental virus of woke ideology is an epidemic which is destroying the foundations of Western civilization. Woke is the cancer that needs to be extirpated. It has colonized our institutions, our universities, our media and even our supranational bodies. Feminism, equality, gender ideology, climate change, abortion and immigration are all heads of the same monster, whose aim is to justify the advance of the state. This is the great epidemic in our time that must be cured. It is the cancer that must be removed.”
Milei also pointed his finger at the offenders in his presence, adding that events such as Davos “have been protagonists and promoters of the sinister agenda of wokeism doing so much damage to the West.”
Amen to that!
As an aside, if you want to follow all the latest happenings in Argentina, take a gander at our friend Joel Bowman’s Notes from the End of the World, which he pens from his perch in Buenos Aires.
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Sincerely,
MN Gordon
for Economic Prism
