On Monday, December 12, the Higher School of Economics and Business Administration (ESEADE) gave the deputy javier milei the title of Doctorate Honoris Causa and Visiting Professor, distinctions that are usually given to outstanding people in professional and academic fields. But while Milei was recognized by said institution, another economist and (now) former teacher of the same house, presented his resignation: Roberto Cachanoskywho decided to leave the institution as soon as he heard the news, stating that the decision to award Milei an Honoris Causa Doctorate “ruins the prestige of ESEADE.”
“I do not share that this title is given to someone who uses insults and disqualification. I consider that because of this the institution loses seriousness and academic level, and I have to take care of my name and my prestige. They cannot give these titles to someone who has been proven to have plagiarized,” said Cachanosky, consulted by NEWS. In his words, the economist referred to the plagiarisms that Milei carried out from various authors in her book “Pandenomics”, as NEWS could verify. What was the reason for ESEADE’s decision to award these distinctions to someone who participates in the academic world but commits plagiarism? A miscalculation? Or a marketing operation to increase enrollment?
“The second Argentine miracle”.
The distinctions were delivered to Milei by the hand of Alberto Benegas Lynch (m), manager, teacher, and first rector of ESEADE, one of the intellectuals who has most publicly exalted the figure of the libertarian deputy, describing him as “the second Argentine miracle” after Juan Bautista Alberdi. The praise is mutual: at the delivery ceremony, Milei described Benegas Lynch as “a hero who knows that he is a hero and acts like one.”
For his part, the President of the Board of Directors of ESEADE, Ricardo Greco Guinazu, said in the act that Milei “is the one that best represents the ideology” of said institution. Also participated in the ceremony Karina Miley, sister and right hand of Javier. They were also present Lilia Lemoineadviser to Milei, who recently starred in a scandal by calling the legislator an “Australian tank” Ofelia Fernandez in a talk in which he taught militants from La Libertad Avanza to “troll” politicians. The deputy for La Libertad Avanza and Milei’s running mate, victoria villarrueland the Buenos Aires legislator for La Libertad Avanza, Ramiro Marra, they were there too. NEWS consulted Benegas Lynch and ESEADE about why these distinctions were given to someone who plagiarized authors in his book. Neither the academic nor the institution have responded so far.
Economists in the ring.
Cachanosky resigned from ESEADE, an institution in which he has taught since 1981, as soon as he found out about the distinction that would be given to Milei, a couple of weeks ago. But the differences with Milei come from much earlier: according to Cachanosky, in 2016 Milei insulted Adrián Ravier, an ESEADE teacher who was a disciple of Juan Carlos Cachanosky, Roberto’s brother economist and who also taught at that institution. “I wrote a tweet saying that my brother liked Ravier. Milei’s followers immediately came out to insult me, and mess with my brother, who was just one year after his death, ”says Cachanosky. Even when Juan Carlos was still alive, the Cachanoskys coincided with Milei at a meal in which the now deputy began to criticize them loudly and say that “what they were doing was wrong.”
And there were also other crossovers. In 2018 Milei participated in a press conference at the Metán Bar Association, in Salta. At that event, local journalist Teresa Frias asked Milei why Keynesianism, an economic current created by John Maynard Keynes Of which Milei is a strong detractor, “it had worked in the United States but not in Argentina.” “What you said is nonsense. You talked about something you don’t know, ”Milei yelled at Frías after her question. Cachanosky questioned the statements of Milei, who stated that “Keynesian policies could never be applied in the crisis of 1930 because he wrote it, ‘General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money’, was published in 1936. “However, I showed letters that Keynes had sent to President Roosevelt in 1935, referring to meetings they had held in previous years, and where he explained what would later become his general theory. And Milei insulted us for contradicting him. Someone who insults you for having a different opinion on a historical issue has no academic level”, says Cachanosky.
In his criticisms, the now former ESEADE professor made reference to the plagiarisms that Milei carried out in “Pandenomics”, his penultimate book, in which he copied verbatim, without citation or reference, texts by various authors, such as the Mexican physicist and graduate from Oxford, Salvador Uribarri; the Spanish physicist from the University of Murcia, Antonio Guirao Piñera, and even the chief economist of the IMF, Gita Gopinath.
Antecedent.
Already in 2021, the “Medium” site had revealed that several of Milei’s publications in Infobae and in El Cronista had plagiarized paragraphs, exact replicas of canonical intellectuals of the liberal tradition, such as henry hazlitt, ludwig von mises, Frederick Hayek either Murray Rothbard. At that time, Milei argued that, since they were “disclosure notes”, there was no need to name the authors, for a “practical” issue. “I have been writing columns since 1985. The authors are always cited: always. If not, you plagiarize,” said Cachanosky, final.
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