News of column

Milei hurt by yet another time bomb

05-07-2025 07:34 A New York judge has ordered the government to hand just over half the shares in YPF to a vulture fund that had purchased the rights of companies harmed by the cack-handed takeover of the oil firm in 2015.

by James Neilson

Campaign comments

The autumn of the patriarch

05-07-2025 07:19 Gildo Insfrán’s power stems from the provincial government being by far Formosa’s biggest employer with less than six percent of the workforce having formal jobs in the private sector, boosted by shameless patronage.

by Michael Soltys

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Milei: Cruelty as the method

09-06-2025 15:24 The cruelty that spills daily from President Milei’s mouth and from his no less uncouth officials is not rhetorical excess or a communications blunder. It is method. It is doctrine.

by Daniel Capalbo

As I see it

Humanity in the grip of a death wish

07-06-2025 06:39 According to Austral University’s human resources department, the birth rate in Argentina has fallen to 1.4 per woman.

by James Neilson

Campaign comments

On a mission in omission

07-06-2025 06:34 Voting for provincial deputies in Misiones is more likely to be a landslide for the local ruling party than any electoral earthquake.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Where angels fear to tread

31-05-2025 06:33 The demolition job suffered by PRO in the City has most provinces now thinking twice about advancing their elections and exposing local hegemonies to the forces of heaven.

by Michael Soltys

As I see it

Milei wants to paint Argentina violet

24-05-2025 06:49 Milei and his sister are well aware that political loyalties usually owe more to a person’s sense of belonging to a vaguely defined community than to reasoned arguments. Handouts can help, but peer pressure counts for more than anything else.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei looks like a one-trick pony

10-05-2025 07:45 Chainsaws are great but they can maim or even kill users who are too weak or too clumsy to handle them properly.

by James Neilson

GUEST COLUMN

Batakis: IMF betting on Milei because his failure would also be theirs

01-05-2025 07:42 This is a “political loan,” if not to say a campaign contribution, as in 2018.

GUEST COLUMN

Pope Francis and his message of brotherhood

25-04-2025 23:44 Theological, ideological or political differences must not become excuses to distance ourselves from each other. On the contrary, they must inspire us to engage even closer in meaningful dialogue.

by Marwan Gill

GUEST COLUMN

Malaysia’s capital control (cepo) success – a journey beginning in Buenos Aires

19-04-2025 06:03 Malaysia’s success highlights the importance of policy credibility, clarity of purpose and exit strategy in the use of capital controls.

OPINION & ANALYSIS

Transportation electrification is coming, but will it spark a broader shift?

11-03-2025 11:19 From the heart of Buenos Aires to remote corners of Patagonia, the electrification of transportation is gaining momentum, driven by a convergence of innovation, government support and a broad push for modernisation.

by Heliana Veronica Higbie

GUEST COLUMN

The month of Ramadan: a new opportunity for reconciliation

04-03-2025 16:57 Let us not forget in our thoughts and prayers those corners of the globe where fasting is not a choice, but an imposition and the consequence of war.

by Marwan Gill

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

The 86th victim

18-01-2025 06:41 Ten years later, Argentine society is still owed an explanation of a bafflingly mysterious death.

by Michael Soltys

As I see it

Dreaming of a Trumpian empire

11-01-2025 06:36 By openly declaring that all that stuff about sovereignty, the inviolability of internationally recognised borders and such should be discarded for what he says are strategic reasons, Trump may well have kickstarted something that could have far-reaching consequences that he would be the last to welcome.

by James Neilson

JIMMY CARTER (1924-2024)

A good man who lived a good life

04-01-2025 06:26 Before Jimmy Carter, the US State Department would only protect its own citizens if they fell foul of a foreign dictator. But under him, thousands of lives were saved by US diplomacy.

by Robert Cox

GUEST COLUMN

New Year’s resolutions: Forgotten items on the list

31-12-2024 17:26 While many of us will celebrate the New Year under a secure roof, gathered around a table with abundant food and drink, let’s not forget in our thoughts and prayers those corners of the world that are facing the consequences of man-made suffering.

by Marwan Gill

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

G20 or 19+1?

23-11-2024 06:00 Argentina was an odd man out in the G20 long before the shaggy libertarian embarked on his solitary crusade against Agenda 2030.

by Michael Soltys

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Is Milei's star beginning to fade?

28-09-2024 06:55 The first economist to become president in Argentina, he is banking on a rebound that has remained elusive thus far. The risks will only increase until people begin to feel the improvement

by Agustino Fontevecchia

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Selling your soul to the devil?

31-08-2024 05:40 Macri and Milei are still feeling each other out, much like heavyweight boxers who dance around each other throwing light jabs for fear of being hit with an uppercut. All of which begs the question, who will stab the other one in the back first?

by Agustino Fontevecchia

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

War between Milei and Villarruel escalates

22-08-2024 14:33 Dispute between President Javier Milei and Vice-President Victoria Villarruel has been publicly exposed. The question is no longer why it is happening, but how it can end.

by Javier Calvo

GUEST VOICE

Axel Kicillof: The economics of cruelty

10-08-2024 06:57 Thanks to Milei, the rich are richer and the poor poorer while the middle class is in free fall.

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Milei, Messi, and how to be the best in the world

29-06-2024 04:16 Milei continues to claim that his ministers are “the best ever.” Until they are not, as his former friend and Cabinet Chief Nicolás Posse can attest.

by Marcelo J. García

Beyond the headlines

Friends will not always be friends

08-06-2024 05:49 Professionalism is plunging to new lows under a president who at times seems to take the first half of his self-definition of “anarcho-capitalist” just as seriously as the second.

by Michael Soltys

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

What if Milei has no clothes on?

01-06-2024 05:03 Milei’s economic programme does not have the luxury of letting the flame of hope die out.

by Marcelo J. García

GUEST COLUMN

Advancing US-Argentine energy and minerals cooperation

30-04-2024 16:13 Argentina's energy security and decarbonisation pathway will only be enhanced by deeper collaboration with the United States, write Jeremy M. Martin & Raúl Bertero.

Analysing Argentina

Is Milei feeling the fear?

20-04-2024 06:45 Milei’s government needs to pass legislation, something it has not been able to do in its first four-and-a-half months in office. Congressional approval would be an indication to Argentines and foreign observers alike that he means business.

by Marcelo J. García

Analysing Argentina

Is President Milei growing in stature?

06-04-2024 06:39 Argentina’s president is exercising power fully, even as he continues to learn how the dynamics of it works.

by Marcelo J. García

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

Who wants to ‘exploit’ Argentina?

30-03-2024 06:43 The business establishment, here and abroad, are keeping a close eye on whether Milei and his team can deliver on governance – and whether they can do it soon.

by Marcelo J. García

Analysing Argentina

Another 100 days of solitude?

23-03-2024 06:30 If Javier Milei insists on tragedy, he might kill Argentina’s democracy – or vice-versa. He does not need to.

by Marcelo J. García

GUEST COLUMN

Purim and the National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice

22-03-2024 00:01 Argentina’s National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice is to be commemorated on the same day that we observe and celebrate Purim in the Hebrew calendar.

by Batia D. de Nemirovsky & Ariel Gelblung *

ANALYSING ARGENTINA

The elusive goal Milei needs to score

09-03-2024 06:14 Javier Milei's government knows that should the president’s popularity sink further, his power to impose reform on “the caste” would wane significantly.

by Marcelo J. García

GUEST VOICE

Protest and circulation – a clash of two worlds

19-12-2023 21:52 The right to demonstrate and move freely are on a collision course in Argentina. Not to be taken as something natural. But the way out must inevitably be via dialogue.

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Going to the dogs?

16-12-2023 07:20 This final election 2023 column concludes a series running the length of the campaign – now it’s time to detail the resulting political architecture in the present tense.

by Michael Soltys

NEW ERA FOR ARGENTINA

Milei and a libertarian’s wet dream

09-12-2023 05:45 Is Milei’s ambitious reform package possible in today’s Argentina? Not only does his La Libertad Avanza coalition lack congressional muscle, but both of its negotiating partners are deeply fragmented, muddying the legislative front.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

They also serve…

02-12-2023 10:23 That stateside visit threw something of a spanner into what is anyway very much a stop-go process of transition and Cabinet-building – Milei would seem anxious to remind people of the first half of his self-definition as an anarcho-capitalist.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTIONS 2023 – ANALYSIS

Living in Milei’s world

25-11-2023 14:22 These initial steps are positive in maintaining the situation from blowing up but they are insufficient in and of themselves. Not only would this cordiality and cooperation have to be maintained over time, Milei’s strategy would actually have to work.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Method in his madness?

25-11-2023 14:16 Javier Milei’s solitary rise to the top from almost nowhere in a couple of years is more apparent than real. The key to this success is more like the solution to Agatha Christie’s 'Murder on the Orient Express' – they all did it.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

18-11-2023 06:42 Democratic voting in Argentina ran on the basis of simple majorities until 1972 when that system was a non-starter for a military régime since it would guarantee victory for a Juan Domingo Perón. In order to give themselves the faint chance of the anti-Peronist chunk of society outnumbering the Peronist masses if obliged to vote en bloc, they introduced a system whereby nothing short of an absolute majority would permit victory in the first round.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Run-up to run-off II

11-11-2023 05:40 If everybody assumed Milei to be the next president after his PASO primary upset with Massa massively favoured following last month’s turnaround, the wheel could be turning full circle again.

by Michael Soltys

GUEST VOICE

Will you remain silent?

09-11-2023 00:29 React. Don't be silent. There is still time.

by Dr. Ariel Gelblung

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Run-up to run-off

04-11-2023 05:37 If we have had two straight surprises in the voting so far this year, why not three?

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Crouching tiger, hidden lion

28-10-2023 04:18 Fear of the unknown is such a conservative emotion that instead people ended up clinging to the status quo, inflation and scandals included.

by Michael Soltys

Campaign comments

Expecting every voter to do their duty

21-10-2023 05:51 While tomorrow’s election is widely seen as a three-cornered affair (like the hats in the times of Trafalgar), all three of its fleets tend to believe that there are only two sides. Could tomorrow’s election echo the battle by ultimately leading to a breakdown of existing alliances with a new Argentina eventually resulting?

by Michael Soltys

GUEST COLUMN

Conflict in Middle East is not a war between Muslims and Jews

20-10-2023 17:50 The conflict between Hamas and Israel is not a war between Muslims and Jews. Both Judaism and Islam are not a threat to each other's existence but are guarantors of universal brotherhood and peaceful coexistence.

by Marwan Gill

Campaign comments

The pit and the pendulum II

14-10-2023 05:22 The pit and the pendulum feed each other with “the worse, the better” logic, appealing to most candidates with Milei’s advice against renewing fixed-term peso deposits the outstanding example.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

The pit and the pendulum

07-10-2023 06:22 Neither last Sunday’s debate nor the passage of eight weeks have produced any paradigmatic shift from the three-way tie of the PASO primary.

by Michael Soltys

CAMPAIGN COMMENTS

Hat-trick or the third wheel?

30-09-2023 05:07 Any win helps and far more so when the margin of Alfredo Cornejo’s victory in Mendoza surpassed all expectations. But does this injection of enthusiasm reviving optimism reach the dimensions of a game-changer for Patricia Bullrich?

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2023

Demystifying Javier Milei

23-09-2023 05:11 Milei is a mystical creature with an impenetrable halo above his head at the moment. His opponents appear weak and disoriented. Yet there is still ample room for surprises.

by Agustino Fontevecchia