As it turns out, overhauling an entire country can be somewhat of a daunting task, as is being put on display in Argentina where Javier Milei is facing an uphill climb to make broad-stroke changes that the country needs to snap it out of socialism.
Argentina's national labor appeals court suspended part of President Javier Milei's emergency decree that was put forth to overhaul the country's failing economy, Bloomberg reported this week.
The suspended portion of the decree dealt specifically with labor reforms, simplifying severance pay obligations and hiring "trial periods". On Wednesday the court issued the injunction which will be seen as a "temporary victory" to the country's labor unions, the report says.
Milei's team will now challenge the court's suspension, citing conflict with municipal and provincial rulings. The injunction prevents complete derailment by congress or courts for now, with lawmakers yet to vote on the decree, which hasn't been blocked in recent administrations.
We noted that to end 2023, socialist activists and workers unions were carrying images of Che Guevara and Eva Peron while protesting Milei's cuts.
As we noted then, the cuts are a part of Milei's sweeping economic measures that will erase or rewrite over 300 rules regulating and restricting private enterprise within the nation.
"The goal is to start along the path to rebuilding the country... and start to undo the huge number of regulations that have held back and prevented economic growth," Milei said in a televised speech from the presidential palace.
The protests and anger from leftist elements within Argentina illustrate the numerous pitfalls of allowing socialism to be rooted within any country for any length of time.
Though Milei's opposition often argues that Argentina has never been “truly socialist,” the government policies that have been in place for decades certainly are. It is a classic far-left deflection: Whenever a socialist government or economy fails, claim it wasn't real socialism. Rinse, and repeat.
Deregulation, protesters argued, would pave the way for big business interests while reducing welfare programs and protections for the public. The protests are of course built upon a number of assumptions and are reactionary at best, given that Milei has been in office for a mere two weeks.
We're also near certain these protestors have not asked critical questions about where the funding for such government programs is going to come from when the country's currency has been zapped into a hyperinflationary oblivion.
The country's national debt has climbed to over $400 billion US dollars and they are struggling with a $44 billion IMF loan. However, the real threat is their triple digit inflation which is igniting a mounting economic crisis. It is the same crisis that has resurfaced multiple times since the crash of 1990.
But, as usual, we digress...
