BUENOS AIRES – The new year began with a bang here in the Argentine capital, with the country in crisis and the fifth president installed in two weeks. Television reports seemed to suggest the country was in chaos. That is far from the truth. The capital city seemed almost tranquil, with sporadic demonstrations and a small amount of violence. While unemployment hovers at 20 percent, there are still fewer homeless on the streets than in any major American city. Most of the current angst derives from the fact that a large part of the population here are used to what economists would call “free lunches” and are unhappy they may have to stop. On New Year’s Day, Senor Eduardo Duhalde, a former governor of the province of Buenos Aires, was sworn in as president. In short order his inaugural speech put Argentina right back on course for a train wreck. Duhalde attacked the free market and international finance agencies as the root cause of his country’s problems. He promised to add 1 million unemployed to the welfare rolls as soon as possible. His latest move over the weekend was to de-link the peso from the dollar. This effectively devalued the currency and set the stage for massive inflation. All of this surely went over well. Argentines don’t want to look in the mirror, to acknowledge that their flouting of market principles – and basic rules of accountability in the public and private sectors – caused the crisis. To be sure, the current crisis was long in the making. A hundred years ago Argentina was the seventh-largest economy in the world. By the end of World War II, Argentines boasted a higher standard of living than Americans. Dictator Juan Peron and his wife, Evita, gained power during the 1940s – and took away democratic freedoms – during a period of economic prosperity. The population here has been hooked ever since, and can’t kick the habit. By all measures, Argentina should be a fantastically prosperous country. It has tremendous natural resources and an educated and skilled work force. Yet the nation remains stuck in a rut. The recent caretaker, President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, came to office with promises of reform. Yet one of his first acts was to stop plans made by his predecessor to cut pensions and government dole payments by a modest 13 percent. Until last weekend, Argentina’s peso was fixed to the dollar, so the government couldn’t simply do what other profligate nations have done in the past: inflate the currency. So Rodriguez Saa decided to create a third currency called the argentino. His appointee to head the nation’s largest bank described the third currency as a wise idea. He said the concept was working well in two countries that Argentina should emulate: Cuba and China. So much for any hope of Argentina pulling out of this miasma anytime soon. And some think it will get worse before it gets better. An American businessman who headed a New York Stock Exchange company predicts that soon the military will once again take over Argentina. This may or may not come to pass. Certainly Argentina’s democracy sits on the most fragile of foundations. The anti-democratic ideas of Peron permeate all aspects of society. The Peronist Party controls both houses of the Congress, and the new president, Duhalde, is an unabashed Peronist. Interestingly, Peron was inspired by Mussolini and the fascists of the 1930s. He built Argentina on that model. The model is simple: The government controls most major businesses and follows a program of justicialismo – socialism to redistribute wealth. Of course, “socialism,” “redistribution” and “justicialism” are euphemisms for state-sponsored theft. Dictators like to steal from the rich to buy the support of the poor and working classes, thus keeping political power. This is exactly what Peron did and what almost every Argentine civil and military leader who has governed the country since Peron has done. Argentina should be a First World nation, but Peronism has brought it to the brink of being a Third World banana republic. Instead of temporarily solving its liquidity crisis or figuring out how it should pay its debts, the country needs to figure out a new approach, one based on private property rights, free enterprise and guaranteed political freedoms. All of these ideas are predicated on rules of honesty and accountability, rules that are almost nonexistent in Argentina today. A previous president, Carlos Menem, was recently released from house arrest on corruption charges. Menem is still considered the power broker of the Peronist Party. As for Duhalde himself, there were allegations that he received millions of dollars in drug money during his 1999 campaign for president. It’s doubtful he will want to clean house. Christopher Ruddy is editor of NewsMax.com.

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---