In just two months Javier Milei has extremed the antagonisms in a country that is divided between the crisis and the clamor for immediate responses. The doctor in economics Pablo Tigani spoke with PULSO and provided his insight.
QUESTION: What do you think of Milei’s pricing policy?
ANSWER: The inflation figure is crazy. These people doubled the inflation of 12 points in one month, which was the previous government’s monthly maximum. They doubled inflation and reduced fixed income 50 points in 60 days. They released all the prices of the economy so that it is the law of the henhouse. Let the liberal fox freely eat the liberal hens. They opened the door to the chicken coop and said: “You are all free.” The problem is that chickens cannot defend themselves from the fox. These are prices that are double those in the United States, with a fifth of the income of someone who lives in the United States. A pair of sneakers costs $100. But there the average minimum wage is $2,500. Here it is US$500.
Q: Milei had anticipated that it was going to make a fierce adjustment to cut broadcasting, but how do you interpret the absolute and simultaneous liberation of all prices, rates and the dollar?
R: They are a government of dogmatists. Milei is a dogmatist. How does the speech always end? “Long live fucking freedom!†. It is the image of an extremist who has a bomb vest and immolates himself shouting “For Allah!” And be careful, it is not a Milei problem, it is a problem of the extremes. Myriam Bregman has the same problem. One listens to Bregman’s diagnosis of the scenario, and there are few who describe the crisis with such lucidity. But at the moment of praxis, it appeals to Leninism and gives answers typical of an anachronistic revolution that was annihilated without firing a single shot.
Neither the law nor the DNU are viable. Both the law and the DNU should be rejected outright and this man should be taught that he has to respect the institutions of the Republic. That there are three powers. The president is acting as if he were a monarch.
Q: What do you think of Cristina Fernández’s letter?
R: It makes a good description of periods of crisis. Where they start and where they end. I think it was a good idea to quote Orlando Ferreres in the infographic. But it was a mistake not to mention who Orlando Ferreres is: Carlos Menem’s Vice Minister of Economy who launched the Bunge and Born plan, and who Milei did the same in the last two months.
Q: Do you find any other values in the document?
R: Cristina does another very good thing. She contextualizes, something that dogmatists never do. She describes Menem’s ’89, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Washington consensus. Then he says, “these people want to do in a different time, the same thing that Menem did 30 years ago.†Almost no one contextualizes. In general, analysts begin the diagnosis by asking about Alberto Fernández’s government. No, wait, we go to Macri’s four years and then we talk about Alberto Fernández and we hit him. And let’s talk about Cristina too. Cristina talks about the financialization of the economy but she did not have the political courage to carry out financial reform. Neither her nor Néstor. She is correct in the letter when she points out that dollarization is irreversible. Precisely because of what she told you. Milei wants to be Menem, but she is not Menem, and the international context is not the same. She wants to be Trump, but Trump is a nationalist and protectionist, not an anarcho-capitalist.
Q: What is the most serious thing about the DNU and the omnibus law?
R: The worst thing that can be done with the DNU is to section it. The violation of article 29 of the Constitution. From there everything is bad. In the same DNU you get a constitutional reform, a reform to the Penal Code and a reform of the Civil Code. It is unpresentable. From my point of view, neither the law nor the DNU are viable. Both the law and the DNU should be rejected outright and this man should be taught that he has to respect the institutions of the Republic. That there are three powers. We don’t just elect President. I elected deputies and I want you to listen to them. He’s acting like he’s a monarch. If we were a parliamentary democracy, a parliamentary monarchy, great. But that’s not even it. He is an absolutist. He believes he is Louis XIV.
I have never even heard a military man say “fucking lefties” to people when he is President of the Nation, or threatening the governors. And we are naturalizing it, as if that were “normal.”
Q: What do you think of the President’s belligerent profile?
R: We have naturalized a president of the Nation who told the Pope that he was the representative of evil on earth and is going to visit him at the Holy See. That he told a woman that she was a terrorist murderer who planted bombs in kindergartens and then appointed her Minister of Security. That he accused Caputo of being a broker who had smoked the US$15 billion that the IMF sent in 2018 and now appointed him Minister of Economy. That he ran a political campaign based on reducing caste and the first thing he did was incorporate caste into the government. It is clear that he has a severe pathology. I have never even heard a military man say “fucking lefties” to people when he is president of the Nation, or threatening the governors. And we are naturalizing it, as if that were “normal.” What would have happened if Cristina Fernández had said any of the things Milei said.
Q: The dollar is already behind by 60% in March. Are you going to dollarize?
R: They probably have a good excuse to dollarize higher, right? To let everything float. At this moment the blue dollar is quiet because the entire middle class is selling dollars to pay their bills. The blue dollar is basically fueled by the middle class, who are not saving because they liquidated 50% of their salary. In fact, they are being amplified by some international microphones. Forbes came out to ask Milei to hurry up. They are going to say that they are asking for dollarization from outside. And the reality is that what they want to do is dollarize. If they can do it, they will do it.
Profile
• Pablo Tigani has a Doctor in Political Sciences and a Master in Economics (University of Belgrano).
• He was CEO and financial advisor at JVC, Panasonic and Banelco, specializing in debt restructuring processes.
• He was Professor of Economic Analysis at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and today he is Professor of the MBA at UADE.
• Founder and CEO of the Consultancy Hace.