55.69% of Argentines elected Javier Milei as president for the period 2023-2027. He will be the first economist president in Argentine history.
The first economist Manuel Belgrano, He did not hold a managerial position in the country, imprisoned by the internal conflicts of the time, and the lack of consensus. Milei will be the first democratically elected liberal president in 101 years. In 1922 he was elected the radical-conservative-liberal Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear. Economists, when they ventured into politics, have not had much success, it must be said, both in Argentina and in other countries. Usually rigid in training, with a high mathematical content in a dialectical combination between dynamic optimization and algebra, with a certain lack of flexibility and the ability to adapt so characteristic and necessary in politics.
They say that Oscar Wilde said “an economist is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”. The challenge will be enormous. Argentina was among the ten countries with the highest GDP per capita in the world at the beginning of the 20th century; It is currently in a de-development process that probably began in 1973. A new opportunity opens up to return to the path of progress. Led by an economist, who will need a generation of well-chosen leaders. Argentina always surprises.
Ernesto Alejandro O’Connor is an economist and economic consultant
by Ernesto Alejandro O’Connor
