His grandmother, an Armenian survivor of the Turkish genocide, could not have imagined it; nor his father, a door-to-door shoe salesman who went bankrupt with Martínez de Hoz, that Carlos Alberto, that boy who started selling bouquets of flowers at the door of the Pompeii church, would be an economic star.
Because today, at 66 years old, Melconian became the reinforcement that Patricia Bullrich incorporated to counteract Javier Milei. It is the last hope of a large part of the establishment that lost faith in Sergio Massa and is afraid of the candidate Freedom Advances.
The polls do not give him the best news, for now. But there is one objective that Melconian has already begun to fulfill: Milei gets involved in discussions with him, something that other economists from Together for Change They had tried without success, and he believes he is succeeding in discrediting him.
The incredible story of Valentín Alsina’s kid who became a respected and recognized figure. A few blocks from the shoe store that his father opened 45 years ago, and that his brother Gregorio runs today, a star was born: Roberto Sanchez. “Melco” today is a kind of Sandro of economics, who went from the most humble origins to stardom. These are the plans of the man who wants to straighten out the country and, above all, cure it of inflation.
Announcement.
18 months ago, Melconian and the Mediterranean Foundation They began to prepare a comprehensive project to clean up the economy. At the beginning of the year, with the elections in sight, they made it available to the candidates. “I talk to Milei and Massa. Always with a professional character. But they were Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich those who demanded to see the program,” confessed the economist.
In order not to interfere with the internal process, he met with the candidates from Together for Change in reserved meetings and developed the plan for them. He speculated on which of the two would lower the hammer on the project he was designing. It was Bullrich.
During this time of preparation, he met with members of the Supreme Court, with a dozen governors, several legislators, ambassadors, business and academic circles. Even with CGT leaders: “In private the union leaders understand my proposals and agree with me, then they have to see how they handle it in public so as not to look bad,” she boasts in interviews. If he enters the ministry, he will have to see how much force the unions use to resist the reforms he proposes.
Melconian’s office was the scene of the presentations in those meetings with Bullrich that are now made public. They projected the Power Point presentations on a television, to convince the candidate of the “comprehensive plan” that she currently carries in a crowded folder.
To carry out his project, which is written step by step, and which he calls “The End of Chamullo”, to differentiate himself from the “unrealizable projects” presented by the technical teams of other candidates, Melconian is accompanied by a team of 77 professionals, which are detailed in an Excel spreadsheet, each one with its specialty. 65 that she had been bringing since before closing with Bullrich and a dozen economists from Together for Change that she incorporated when the candidate called him. “You have to be available 24/7. “I call you and you have to answer me, no matter what time.” requires them before incorporating them.
The team has been divided into specific subjects. For example, there are six economists working on a key aspect of their proposal, bimonetary. But the most important team is the most loyal. The small table: four professionals who ensure general balance. What the portfolio’s chiefs of staff could be, if Bullrich wins: Rodolfo Santángelo (his historical partner), Enrique Szewach, Daniel Artana and Facundo Martínez Mailo. The trusted men.
Melconian will base his work on three aspects: the search for macroeconomic stabilization and reforms of the public and private sectors. He even has a compendium of laws that he is going to ask Bullrich to send to Congress on the first day of his administration. The thing is, to make the changes he proposes, a team of lawyers analyzed the laws and decrees that must be urgently modified. The draft has titles such as: Labor relations, State reform, law of ministries, Organic Charter of the Central and economic emergency lawamong other.
Broadly speaking, it proposes “micro cuts” in the State, to reduce the deficit: they have to reach one and a half points of GDP in the first year. And he will look for a free and floating exchange rate: his idea is to lift the stocks and have the price of the dollar float in the middle of the official and the blue. He is going to propose a “popular legalization”: That whoever has small amounts of undeclared dollars can add them to the market without AFIP sanctions, for example to change a car. Everything is detailed in his compendium of ideas.
“You have to copy everything, if everything has already been invented. We look for the experience of countries that did well and we bring those plans,” the economist confessed to Fantino at the beginning of September, about his management project.
Balance.
At such a level of stress that means making a plan to try to cure the economy and meanwhile confronting Milei and Massa in the media, Melconian tries to counterbalance it with sports and moments of recreation.
Start every day with training, in the gym or going for a run. He is a soccer fan, but he plays less than he would like. From time to time he gets into a dive with his childhood friends Valentín Alsina, although now roasts are more frequent. The last one was two weeks ago, where his brother “Gregori” was also there. It is the place where Melconian is just Carlitos. The Bear, the Mouse, the Russian, Laucha and Romani, among others, are already joined by the children of some of them. “I’m going to the ‘Far West,’” he says in a funny reference every time he returns to his place of origin.
Today, his economic situation is light years away from that of his childhood. He confesses himself to be the son of a social mobility that no longer exists. In his last sworn statement, in 2016, he published that he had 78 million pesos, the vast majority of that fortune is abroad. He has, among other luxuries, a 1,000-square-meter house in Punta del Este, where he religiously spends his summers. But he does not forget his childhood full of deprivation.
A humble house, on a dirt street, with a bathroom outside the house. The water heater was a privilege that came to him when he was 20 years old: until then, to bathe, they heated the water in pots. It was the neighborhood where the poor Armenian community had settled. “The rich were in Palermo and the middle class in Flores. In Valentín Alsina we were the ones at the bottom,” he once recalled.
Proud of his Armenian roots, he learned to speak his grandparents’ language with a private teacher, like all the kids in the neighborhood. In Alsina there were no community schools, so he attended primary school in a parochial school and secondary school in Industrial de Avellaneda.
His father sold shoes in the neighborhoods, but Martínez de Hoz’s financial reform filled him with rejected checks and caused his bankruptcy. To raise their head they had to downsize and open a store in Alsina. Melconian remembers the exact date: “September 6, ’78,” he recites when he tells the story. It was the first formal job he had, while he was studying Economic Sciences at the UBA. In fact, he left it only when he joined the Central Bank. He handed over the baton to his brother, who continues to lead the business today.
Then, he got a scholarship to do a postgraduate degree at the Universidad di Tella. It was the start of a dizzyingly ascending career. While studying, he married Mariela, a psychologist and economist, and had two children. Two more would arrive later. and, further back in history, two grandchildren, to complete the family. None of his descendants followed in his footsteps as an economist.
Racing fan, his team serves as a perfect metaphor for the country. He longs for the glorious old days: the ’66 campaign and idols like Roberto Perfumo, “Coco” Basile or the Uruguayan Ruben Paz. He also sees the current problems: he says that this team, which cannot win important titles, lacks resources to get out of the crisis.
Plans.
Beyond his project, Melconian plays a key role in the campaign. In private meetings with Bullrich’s electoral team, the economist insists on going after Milei’s votes. “There is a third that must be left there, but there are two thirds that want change. Let’s discuss within the two-thirds that want to change,” he recommends.
His appearances are not only media. He also often goes down to the territory. In the last week he walked the Conurbano with the candidate for governor Néstor Grindetti and now he is analyzing whether or not he will accompany Bullrich to the debate on October 1.
He immersed himself fully in the new strategy of Together for Change, of associating Milei with Massa in his latest interviews: “If I put the ‘castometer’ in Freedom advances it would tell me that he has a fever. Because they voted alongside the ruling party in the last session. “I’m already confused,” he called Milei out on the Baby Etchecopar program, days ago.
He is, so far, the only one who managed to get the La Libertad Avanza candidate to respond to the provocations. He fought him and the liberal got hooked on his game. “How are you going to dollarize without dollars. You invite me to your house to eat noodles with tuco, but when I arrive you don’t have any noodles or tuco,” he told her. And Milei reacted. He believes that with his public appearances he is dismantling the plans of the PASO candidate with the most votes.
Melconian He boasts of having no political activism or affiliation. He prefers to be seen as a technical team. He was part of Mauricio Macri’s management and could have been Larreta’s Minister of Economy, if he won the internal election. But also, he could have been part of Carlos Menem’s Cabinet 20 years ago, when the former president, who had already announced him as part of his team, dropped out of the runoff against Néstor Kirchner.
He went to receive Juan Domingo Perón to Ezeiza and went to see Raúl Alfonsín in Ferro, in the return of democracy. “I’m not a pancake. “I like to be where things happen,” she justifies. It is pure pragmatism. A rock star who believes he has the ideal repertoire to get out of the crisis. A kid from humble origins who earned everyone’s respect. Sandro’s new challenge of the economy.
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