If the same question was asked today, the easy answer would be Javier Milei of Argentina, who just gave this astounding speech to the World Economic Forum.
By the way, you can listen here to an AI-generated version of the speech that has Milei speaking in English.
But whether it’s a translator’s voice or an AI version of Milei’s voice is not important. What matters if what Milei said. His speech was a masterful defense of economic liberty.
From the perspective of public policy, three parts of the speech were especially important.
First, he explained that collectivism never works. And he cited Argentina’s sad experiment with statism.
Second, he cited the famous hockey-stick graph of historical per-capita GDP, which shows how free enterprise liberated the world from seemingly permanent poverty (as also explained elsewhere by Don Boudreaux and Deirdre McCloskey).
In a column for the Washington Examiner, Jon Miltimore explains why Milei is so special.
He starts by noting the horrible consequences of socialism in Venezuela. And he then explains that Milei wants to take the opposite path.
In November, the country elected libertarian Javier Milei as its new president. And whereas Hugo Chavez said, “All that was privatized, let it be nationalized,” Milei is essentially saying the opposite: All that was nationalized, let it be privatized. Milei started by cutting in half the number of federal ministries in Argentina, reducing them from 18 to nine. …Milei did not stop there. In a recent televised announcement, he said he would “repeal rules that impede the privatization of state companies.” …Those words were backed up by a 300-measure order designed to deregulate internet services, eliminate various government price controls, repeal laws that discourage foreign capital investment, abolish the Economy Ministry’s price observatory, and “prepare all state-owned companies to be privatized.”
He concludes by warning that it will not be easy to restore economic liberty. But he points out that there would be enormous benefits if Milei is successful.
Recovering from decades of Peronism — a blend of socialism, nationalism, and fascism, which dominated Argentina’s political system for years — will not happen overnight. …the great economist Adam Smith once observed that the key to economic prosperity is surprisingly simple. “Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice,” the Wealth of Nations author said. …A heavy dose of Adam Smith is precisely what Argentina needs, and Milei has correctly diagnosed the affliction of Argentina’s once-prosperous economy. “The state doesn’t create wealth; it only destroys it,” Milei said in a widely viewed 2023 interview.
P.S. For economic wonks, Milei’s speech implicitly embraced Austrian economics.
P.P.S. I sort of disagree with Milei’s concluding remarks. He basically told the Davos audience that they should be proud of being producers. And Milei is certainly correct in saying that wealth comes from the private economy rather than government. But I suspect that the World Economic Forum attracts a lot of cronyists, so I wish he would have specified that businesses are only laudable when they are not relying on handouts, protectionism, bailouts, subsidies, industrial policy, and other examples of corrupt favoritism.
Dan Mitchell is co-founder of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and Chairman of the Board. He is an expert in international tax competition and supply-side tax policy.
