The above headline, published today in the opposition newspaper Página 12 appropriately captures the magnitude of the economic and political crisis wracking Argentina today. Signalling the panic in the government of Libertarian President Javier Milei, on the evening of Oct. 3 his entire economics team—Finance Minister Luis Caputo, Central Bank President Santiago Basuili, Deputy Finance Minister Pedro Daza, and others—fled the country for an unscheduled visit to Washington, desperately seeking a financial bailout from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, to salvage the sinking economy.
On Oct. 2, despite earlier optimistic statements, Bessent told a CNBC interviewer that the U.S. would not offer fresh funds to Argentina, but only a swap line from the Treasury. Domestic markets continue to unravel; there is no let-up in the run on the peso, despite the Central Bank’s frantic sales of dollars to keep it from collapsing, and, seeing Milei’s inability to control the situation, foreign investors are pulling out. Capital flight is unstoppable. Will the economics team return to Buenos Aires? As of this writing, only social media posts have come from Bessent and Georgieva, saying that all options are being considered and that talks are “constructive.”
