Javier Milei


Javier Gerardo Milei is an Argentine libertarian economist, author, radio conductor and public speaker sympathetic to the Austrian School of economic thought. He became widely known for his regular TV appearances where he has been critical of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernández administrations. Milei considers himself to be a "short-term minarchist", although "philosophically an anarchocapitalist".

Biography

Early life and youth

He was born in 1970 to a bus driver. He is of full Italian descent. Milei did high school at Cardenal Copello and decided to pursue a career in economics at the age of 12 after José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz's Economy Administration led the country to a devastating hyperinflation. In late adolescence and early adulthood he was a goalkeeper for Chacarita Juniors until 1989. He also sang in the band "Everest," which played mostly Rolling Stones covers. In a TV show he declared that he currently never visits his parents and that "both of them are dead" to him. To support this view he recalled his college time in which his parents made his life miserable.

Career

Having obtained an economics degree at the private Belgrano University and received two Master's Degrees at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social and the private Torcuato di Tella University. He became a chief economist at Máxima AFJP, a head economist at Estudio Broda and a government consultant at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He used to be a senior economist at HSBC as well.,
Since 2012, he leads the division of Economic Studies, Fundación Acordar, a think tank of national scope. He is also a member of the B20, the Economic Policy Group of International Chamber of Commerce, and the World Economic Forum. He is a specialist in economic growth and has been professor of several economic subjects in Argentine universities and abroad. He has authored 9 books. Currently, he works for Argentine tycoon Eduardo Eurnekián.
For more than 21 years he has been University Professor of Macroeconomics, Economics of Growth, Microeconomics and Mathematics for Economists. Since 2016 he has been trying to merge Austrian economics concepts with Monetarism concepts, as he understands Ben Bernanke was the greatest central banker ever, a point of view rejected by austrian economists." Besides his academic career, Milei is the host of his own radio show named "Demoliendo mitos", with frequent participations of the alberdian economist and businessman Gustavo Lazzari and other personalities such as the also alberdian lawyer Pablo Torres Barthe and the libertarian political scientist María Zaldívar.

Personal life

Milei has been nicknamed "el Peluca" because of his eccentric hairstyle.
He has repeatedly said he does not comb his hair, and for this reason his hairstyle has received significant media attention. Regarding his romantic life he has suggested in a La Nación interview that he is a champion of free love, and in a local TV program stated that he took part in several threesomes and that he is a Tantra instructor, in his words being "capable of remaining three months without ejaculating". For this reason, he claims, is also nicknamed "Vaca Mala". Nevertheless he identifies as a Catholic, who rejects the Magisterium of the Church. With regards to abortion, he has publicly expressed a strong pro-life position.
He owns a dog called 'Conan,' whom he regards as his 'son.'

Criticism

It has been pointed out that one important issue is that Milei makes constant use of mathematical formulae and charts throughout his writings in order to illustrate his points, which clearly contradicts the skeptical Austrian views on the usage of mathematics in economics, regarded by them as a social science. This is the main obstacle to frame Milei as an 'Austrian' economist. Although his conceptual framework is decidedly Austrian, his methodology is overall not.
Keynesian economist , writing for Página 12, rejected Milei's characterization of fiat currency as "counterfeiting money". Aisian claims that previous economists understood that the value of money is independent of its gold backing, in this way rendering Milei's statements negligible.

Controversies

On June 26, 2018 Milei was delivering a conference in Metan, Salta, when he called journalist Teresita Frias a "dunce" after she stated he is totalitarian due to his libertarian ideology. As he refused to apologize, he was reported to be exerting gender violence on her by some media outlets, and a local court compelled him to be subjected to a psychological examination. Family and Gender Justice Carmelo Paz forbid him to take part in public reunions as a panelist or lecturer within the boundaries of the Metan city lest he face legal charges. The judges ended up dismissing the case since according to Milei "there wasn't any violence nor any crime at all".

Radio

Books