Mr. Milei fancies himself to be a great monetary theorist in the Austrian tradition. To illustrate his unrivalled brilliance here are two revealing exhibits.
The first exhibit concerns the consequences of the closure of the central bank that Milei has claimed, already before his election, to be a non-negotiable demand of his. This is certainly an interesting question worthy of careful analysis. Kristoffer Hansen, for instance, has provided such an analysis from an Austrian perspective. And here is Milei’s answer, then, provided before, and again at a recent major conference in Madrid as to why he hasn’t done so already: If you were to shut down the central bank, and no more pesos were printed, then the result would be hyperinflation! Huh? No more pesos being printed leads to hyperinflation. How in the world is that possible? Great mind this Milei. Yet if you doubt this conclusion he calls you an “imbecile.”
The second exhibit concerns the status of fiat currency. For Milei, the paper peso issued by the central bank represents government debt. And yet, if you were to present your paper pesos at the central bank and were to ask that it repay its debt, what would be its answer? Most likely, the bank would declare you a nut and offer you a new peso bill for your old one. And that would be it. Yet if you do not agree with Milei on fiat money being debt, he calls you an “idiot.”
Quoting Hansen, then, “Milei is no Austrian, and that he resorted to name-calling and quack theories in response to Hoppe’s calm critique suggests that he is not much of an economist either.”
