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ARGENTINA | 05-04-2024 14:56

Milei says his four cloned dogs chose their own economist names

The cloned dogs that Javier Milei refers to as his “four-legged children” all bear the names of his economist heroes. But the president insists he didn’t choose their names — they did.

The cloned dogs that Javier Milei refers to as his “four-legged children” all bear the names of his economist heroes: Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, Robert Lucas Jr.

But the Argentine president insists he didn’t choose their names — they did.

“With some names I proposed, they didn’t respond,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. “The names were chosen by them as a result of whether they came near when I said the name. When I said Ludwig, none of them jumped up, nor when I said Friedrich — so that ruled out Mises and Hayek.”

Instead, Milei ended up with four 200-pound English mastiffs: Milton, Murray, Robert and Lucas, all genetic copies of their “father” Conan (after the barbarian). That dog, Milei’s closest companion, died in 2017 but remains a central figure in the president’s life.

One biography of Milei — titled El loco, or the crazy one — claims he still communicates with Conan through a mystic.

The dogs have been objects of public fascination with Milei, whose unusual hairdo and chainsaw-wielding campaign appearances captured as much global attention as his severe economic prescription for Argentina.

Whoever chose the names, they reflect his passionate embrace of free-market policy — Friedman’s aversion to government intervention in the economy, Rothbard’s libertarianism, Lucas’s rationalism.

The name choices show how each of “the boys” has his own personality, Milei said. “Milton is very particular — he’s the one who always wants to be with women,” he said with a chuckle.

by Crayton Harrison, Bloomberg

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