WAYNE KUBLALSINGH

A NEW Argentinian president will be sworn in on December 10. His name is Javier Milei. During his spectacular election campaign, he appeared on stage with a chainsaw, scribbled his signature on a banner-sized US dollar bill, tore off the name-tabs of government ministries from a whiteboard, and flung them away. He called all socialists, leftists, 'leftards,' 'parasites' and 'mierda' (sh**). He energetically vowed to: (a) scrap the central bank; (b) dollarise the economy; (c) chainsaw several government ministries; (d) cut off state relations with 'communist' countries, including China, Venezuela, Brazil. This was his histrionic response to Argentina's plague of massive public debt, hyperinflation, unemployment and poverty.

Some Argentinians are on tenterhooks. They are not sure if Milei will get the job done. But they have suffered so devilishly, their peso virtually destroyed, their pockets being wiped out daily, they are willing to try anything. Milei is a breath of fresh air. He is dynamic and effervescent.

International financial institutions, the World Bank, the IMF, no doubt shocked and taken aback, are being quietly diplomatic. Nobody wants to criticise publicly, lest Milei succeeds and they are wrong. Or risk putting a damper on what appears to be a resurgent moment in Argentinian history.

However, to succeed, Milei will have to alter or ditch his rascal policies (A, C and D above), the kind of extravagant and daredevil imprudence which derailed Argentina's economic promise in the first place.

The central bank is not the real problem for Argentina. The bank has been a cash cow for politicians, dipping their hands into the till indiscriminately. Not good. At the moment it is bankrupt, subsisting on an IMF loan of US$36 billion. The bank needs to be insulated, achieve independence, institutional quality.

Our own Trinidad central bank is comparatively stable. It holds and curates cash, capital stock and non-cash assets like equities, EFTs, bonds. It supports monetary policy in favour of appropriate interest rates, the exchange rate, employment, and inflation control, as far as its knowledge permits.

Milei has also promised to chainsaw 11 out of Argentina's 19 government ministries. Sports and Tourism - afuera! Culture - afuera! Environment and Sustainable Development - afuera! Science and Technology - afuera! Education - afuera! They are inefficient, wasteful, propagandistic or "woke." But this is populist hyperbole. He can't be serious.

Although our own public servants mop up the largest chunk of government revenue (about $19 billion or 40 per cent), or may be badly managed, or may be inefficient, our nurses, doctors, teachers, police, administrators and others work against the odds, in often labyrinthine systems, to perform critical functions.

To forego government agreements with countries such as Brazil, Venezuela and China is reckless. Governance is not only serious business, it ought to be scientific business. Running your economy on the basis of ideological, e