In May of last year, NOTICIAS revealed that javier milei had plagiarized several texts in his book “Pandenomics”. However, the robbery of the anti-caste man was no exception. Almost a year later, the habit of the eccentric libertarian returns to give people talk. In a preface to the latest edition of the book “4000 years of price and wage controls” by Robert L. Schuettinger and Eamonn F. Butler (Union Publishing) The Economist plagiarized several paragraphs from the old prologue of the original edition of the book, which was in charge of David L. Meiselman. An old lion doesn’t learn new tricks.
The text that Milei claims to have written begins as follows: “This monumental work on ‘4,000 Years of Wage and Price Controls’ by Robert Schuettinger and Eamonn Butler is a valuable and timely contribution on how not to fight inflation. Despite the examples provided by history, many governments and public officials maintain that price controls are an effective measure to control inflation. Consequently, implement monetary and fiscal policies that lead to inflationconvinced that the inevitable will not happen.
The really curious thing is that both the original prologue and the one copied by Milei can be read one after the other in the latest edition of the recently published text. Thus, after the letter to which the deputy puts his signature, there follows that of Meiselman, from 1979, which in its last paragraph states that: “This work constitutes a valuable and timely contribution to our knowledge and to the continuous debate on matters of importance relating to public order”. Paragraphs before he says: “Despite the examples that history provides, many governments and public officials still argue that price control is an effective measure to control inflation. Consequently, they implement monetary and fiscal policies that lead to inflation, convinced that the inevitable will not happen.
Likewise, the prologue “de Milei” begins: “The experience lived in situations of price and wage control covers almost all periods of history, which constitutes an excellent opportunity to explore the results of this policy”, exactly the same as the second paragraph of Meiselman’s foreword. Furthermore, we must not lose sight of the fact that all these paragraphs copied by the deputy take place within a prologue that has nothing more than six pages. Not even that could write the man who calls taxes “theft.” The editorial, consulted for this note, preferred not to respond.
“The biggest political scam in our history.” This plagiarism was discovered by the Argentine journalist based in Miami, José Benegas, and published on his blog in an article entitled “Javier Milei: the biggest political scam in our history.” Benegas is a lawyer and has a Master’s in Economics and Political Science from ESEADE. In his blog, social networks, and columns that he writes for the Infobae portal, he usually analyzes politics, economics, and related topics. Although he is a liberal intellectual, he is a strong critic of the figure of Milei and of the new rights, a fact that he analyzed in his book “The unthinkable: the curious case of liberals mutating into fascism.” Benegas says that he discovered the plagiarism at the same time that the investigation by the plagiarisms of “Pandenomics”.
For Benegas, the fact that the movement that accompanies Milei “looks to the side” in the face of events such as allegations of plagiarism, is proof of “to what extent Milei is important to this movement” since “anything is tolerated” . Benegas defines the phenomenon of the new rights as “a Christian nationalism” and dates its beginning with the appearance of the figure of Donald Trump in the United States. “They intend to disguise themselves as liberals. This obsession with ‘pure culture’, which somehow replaces the idea of ’pure race’, originates from my point of view in the National Socialism of the 30’s. It does not mean that they are the same, but the ideas come from there. Milei is the perfect disguise for this religious conservatism that practically wants to go back to the Middle Ages”, says Benegas.
The writer also points out that this Catholic nationalism has generated self-censorship into the liberal world. “There are many people who think like me and are afraid to speak up and be branded as ‘liberprogres,’” says Benegas. Benegas also assures that there is a media fence around Milei to protect him. “No questions or cross-examination are asked. In the case of the note about the plagiarism of “Pandenomics” it is evident. It is a shame the way in which the NEWS note did not have an impact ”, he sentences.
Honoris Causa
On Monday, December 12, the Higher School of Economics and Business Administration (ESEADE) awarded Milei the title of Doctorate Honoris Causa and Visiting Professor, distinctions that are usually given to outstanding people in academic fields. This decoration led to the resignation of the economist Roberto Cachanosky, who left stating that the decision to award Milei the Honoris Causa “ruined the prestige of ESEADE”. “They cannot give these titles to someone who has been proven to have plagiarized,” said Cachanosky, consulted by NEWS.
The other plagiarisms. In her 2020 book “Pandenomics,” Milei stole the work of various authors, including Mexican physicist and Oxford graduate Salvador Uribarri; the Spanish physicist from the University of Murcia, Antonio Guirao Piñera, and even the chief economist of the IMF, Gita Gopinath. There’s also a copy of the introduction text of the “WEO Report (World Economic Outlook) April 2020”, and “The IMF foresees the worst recession since the Great Depression”, published on April 16, 2020 on the website of the “Foment del Treball Nacional”, a confederation that has represented Catalan businessmen since 1771. On page 241 Milei comments on an estimate from the World Labor Organization (ILO), whose article she does not mention but is “COVID-19 and the world of work. Third edition. Updated estimates and analysis”.
But there had been other cases before. 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, Friederick Hayek or Murray Rothbard. . At that time Milei argued that, being “disclosure notes”, there was no need to name the authors, for a “practicality” issue. “I have been writing columns since 1985. The authors are always cited: always. If not, you plagiarize,” said Cachanosky. Again, Javier Milei was consulted by NEWS about this prologue, but, just as it happened with “Pandenomics”, the deputy preferred not to answer.
Complaint
Salvador Uribarri is a Mexican physicist who graduated from the University of Oxford, in England. Through NEWS, he found out in May of last year that Milei had plagiarized his work “The mathematics of epidemics: the case of Mexico 2009 and others”, which he wrote together with ALberto Rodriguez and Jorge Cervantes, and which was published in the magazine “Ciencia ergo sum”, which depends on the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico.
“Upon learning of the plagiarism, I notified the editor of the magazine, and he told me to file a complaint with the general counsel of the University. The surprising thing is that Milei didn’t even make an attempt to paraphrase the text.. To tell the truth, we are not very concerned about plagiarism itself, but we are concerned that people like Milei, who already has a history of plagiarism, come to occupy positions of popular representation,” Uribarri told NOTICIAS on that occasion.
by Tomás Rodríguez and Juan Luis González
