Surprises never cease in Argentina. As soon as he returned from Washington on Nov. 28, Argentine President-elect Javier Milei announced with great fanfare that Luis Caputo, who served as finance minister and Central Bank governor in the 2015-19 Mauricio Macri government, will be his new Finance Minister. Caputo is the one who helped Macri secure the obscene $57 billion standby loan from the IMF in 2018 and then oversaw the implementation of its harsh conditionalities. He appears to be most talented in financial speculation.
Despite having gushed about Caputo’s “expertise,” according to Página 12 today, he wasn’t Milei’s first choice. Apparently, Milei couldn’t find other qualified candidates. Now he is making it known that he intends to determine economic policy himself and will relegate Caputo to a secondary position, while keeping him nominally as finance minister. He reportedly intends to keep close tabs on Caputo, not allowing him to go alone to meetings with important people, and staying in-the-know on everything he does.
