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austerity
Trump Admin Responds to Milei’s Failed Libertarian Policies With a US Taxpayer Bailout for Argentina
"Milei was already gifted a $42 billion lifeline from the US-controlled IMF and the World Bank," said one economics writer, "but even that was not enough to stabilize Milei's crazy Austrian School experiment."
Sep 23, 2025
In his first meeting with a foreign head of state after being reelected president last year, Donald Trump welcomed Argentina's far-right libertarian President Javier Milei to Mar-a-Lago.
At a lavish gala, Argentina's president slathered his host with compliments, describing Trump's return to office as the "greatest political comeback in history."
Before a crowd of onlookers, Trump would return the favor, telling Milei, "The job you’ve done is incredible. Make Argentina Great Again, you know, MAGA. He’s a MAGA person.”
On Monday, less than a year later, Milei arrived in New York for this week's meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, begging for help as Argentina's economy continues its freefall and reels from nearly two years of his radical economic austerity program.
Milei's fealty to Trump bore fruit. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promised that the nation's financial department "stands ready to do what is needed within its mandate to support Argentina."
In what he described as an effort to tame Argentina's runaway inflation, Milei, who has described himself as an "anarcho capitalist," has spent the time since he was elected president in 2023 instituting a brutal regime of what has been referred to as economic "shock therapy."
His agenda has centered on taking a "chainsaw" to government institutions and worker protections: slashing energy and transportation subsidies, halting public infrastructure projects, declaring war on labor unions, freezing wage and pension increases, and firing tens of thousands of government employees.
The result was predictable: By February 2025, the country had begun to rapidly deindustrialize, unemployment was soaring, and more than half of Argentinians lived in poverty.
However, this did not stop Trump from modeling his economic agenda, often explicitly, after Milei's—most notably through the exploits of the chainsaw-brandishing billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he used to lay waste to the administrative state. Trump, meanwhile, has signed legislation gutting social services like Medicaid and food assistance, busted public unions, and canceled numerous green energy and infrastructure contracts.
The result has likewise been a slump in economic activity, culminating in unemployment numbers critics say the administration has been desperate to bury.
The US president has already intervened once to help soften Argentina's landing. As El País notes:
Thanks to Trump’s political support, the government agreed to a $20 billion bailout with the International Monetary Fund last April—to which the country still owes another $40 billion—and achieved a measure of calm, but it lasted barely three months.
Now, with Milei facing mass street protests against his budget cut proposals, a hostile legislature that routinely vetoes his agenda, and a weakening peso in the face of continued uncertainty, he has turned to the US for another bailout, which the US hopes will help ease the country's economic woes enough to stave off a thrashing for his party in the country's general legislative elections on October 26.
Referring to Argentina as a "systemically important US ally in Latin America," Bessent said that "all options for stabilization are on the table." This, he said, "may include, but [is] not limited to, swap lines, direct currency purchases, and purchases of US dollar-denominated government debt from Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund."
Notably, Bessent continued to praise Milei's "support for fiscal discipline and pro-growth reforms." Despite its catastrophic effects, he described Milei's chainsaw agenda as "necessary to break Argentina’s long history of decline."
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) denounced the bailout as another favor from Trump to one of his political allies.
"First, Trump made us pay higher coffee and beef prices to support a convicted coup-plotter in Brazil," she said, referring to Trump's attempt to use harsh tariffs to pressure the Brazilian government into dropping charges against Jair Bolsonaro, who was ultimately convicted last week of attempting to overthrow the government. "Now, he wants American taxpayers to bail out his friend Milei in Argentina."
(Video: The Geopolitical Economy Report)
But as Benjamin Norton of the Geopolitical Economy Report argues, the motivation goes deeper than simply helping out a friend. It is an effort to save the reputation of "actually existing libertarianism" and the fortunes of US investors who've cast their lot with him.
"Milei was already gifted a $42 billion lifeline from the US-controlled IMF and the World Bank (after Argentina already owed more debt to the IMF than any other country), but even that was not enough to stabilize Milei's crazy Austrian School experiment," Norton said. "The US government is doing this not only to prop up one of its most loyal puppets in Latin America, but also in order to benefit wealthy US investors who hold Argentine stocks and bonds, and US corporations that want Argentina's lithium."
With Trump having modeled his oligarch-friendly economic agenda on Milei's, journalist Jacob Silverman—author of the forthcoming book Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley—argued that allowing the libertarian radical to twist in the wind is not an option for Trump.
"Javier Milei can't be allowed to fail," Silverman said, "because MAGA leaders and the tech right have propped him up as a true libertarian fighting the globalists and 'doing what needs to be done': Immiserating his people on behalf of private capital."
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'Macron Get Out!' Unions Lead Massive Anti-Austerity Protests Across France
"We're in a situation of injustice," one protester said. "Workers can no longer feed themselves, students no longer have future prospects."
Sep 18, 2025
Echoing demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms two years ago, hundreds of thousands of people joined protests across France on Thursday, outraged by the government's proposed austerity measures.
While the CGT trade union—one of several labor groups that pushed for the mass mobilization—put the count at over 1 million, French authorities, whose figures are usually much lower than unions, said more than 500,000 demonstrated nationwide, including 55,000 in Paris.
Thursday's demonstrations followed last week's "Block Everything" protests, which coincided with French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's first full day in office. Macron picked Lecornu, his ally and a former defense minister, for the post after François Bayrou lost a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly over the budget plan.
Although "Lecornu quickly scrapped one of the most unpopular proposals—eliminating two public holidays—he has not ruled out the rest," Euronews noted Thursday. "These include an overhaul of unemployment benefits, delinking pensions from inflation, and raising out-of-pocket medical costs."
A protester named Alexandre told Euronews that "right now, we have a government that doesn't listen to us and is even the opposite of what the population needs. A government that robs fellow citizens, and it's important for everyone to mobilise, for the people of France who want to be dignified and who also want to give others their dignity throughout the world."
"We're in a situation of injustice," he added. "Workers can no longer feed themselves, students no longer have future prospects."
Hospital staff, railway workers, students, and teachers were among those who poured into the streets across France—including major actions in cities such as Lyon, Marseille, and Paris—rallying behind the message: "Strikes, Blockades, Macron Get Out!"
The Public Service Ministry said that nearly 11% of France's 2.5 million state employees were on strike. According to Le Monde, "Around 1 in 6 teachers walked out of primary and secondary schools, 9 out of 10 pharmacies were shuttered, and severe disruption occurred on the Paris metro network, where only the three driverless automated lines are working normally."
Protesters want the government to not only kill the proposed austerity measures but also spend more on public services and impose higher taxes on the wealthy. Sophie Binet, the head of the CGT union, said that "the anger is huge, and so is the determination. My message to Mr. Lecornu today is this: It's the streets that must decide the budget."
Multiple elected officials with La France Insoumise (LFI), a party founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon that is now part of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, shared social media posts about them joining the protests.
"The mobilization of youth continues," said Claire Lejeune, an LFI member of the National Assembly, after speaking with secondary school students in Essonne who "no longer want this policy that is wrecking their future."
Citing "the dismantling of public education," "war policy," and "ecological inaction," Lejeune said: "They are absolutely right; in the country, no one wants Lecornu or Macron anymore. I was in support of this peaceful mobilization, alongside the unions and teachers, and faced with a completely disproportionate police setup."
Approximately 80,000 police and gendarmes were deployed for the protests. Early Thursday, LFI's Clémence Guetté, a vice president in the National Assembly, shared footage of officers kicking and shoving a woman.
"Everywhere this morning, the repression strikes and hits without distinction or restraint," she wrote. "The images reaching us are shameful. Here in Marseille. To everyone, be careful. France no longer has a government: Macron is the only one responsible."
After the 1 million estimate began circulating, Guetté called the mass action "immense, everywhere, impressive," and declared: "The people are in the streets! We are going to win."
As Al Jazeera reported: "Across the country, Palestinian flags were visible as some protesters also stood in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel's war on the strip. Protesters blocked the Eurolinks arms factory in Marseille, which is believed to supply equipment to Israel, while holding a large banner that read: 'Shut down the genocidal factory.'"
Noting the solidarity with the Palestinian people on Thursday, LFI's Sarah Legrain called for sanctions, an arms embargo, and lifting Israel's blockade of Gaza, where civilians are starving to death.
Later Thursday, Legrain celebrated the massive turnout and pledged that "we will keep the pressure up until Macron leaves!"
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Hundreds Arrested in France at Anti-Austerity 'Block Everything' Protests
"We're fed up with paying, we're working hard, we're barely managing to keep our heads above water and to think that the hole in the deficit would be our fault is unbearable to hear," said one labor representative.
Sep 10, 2025
On his first full day in office Wednesday, newly appointed French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu was greeted with nationwide protests, organized online by the decentralized "Block Everything" movement, with demonstrators condemning the government's austerity measures that they said would likely be continued by the new leader.
Lecornu, the former defense minister and a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, was hand-picked by the president to succeed outgoing Prime Minister François Bayrou two days after Bayrou lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly over the government's plan to cut the federal budget by over $50 billion.
Bayrou had proposed eliminating two national holidays, freezing pensions for 2026, and cutting billions in health investments to reduce the deficit.
The proposals have intensified anger that's already been brewing over inequality and poverty in France, both of which are on the rise according to the country's statistics bureau.
Research by the EU Tax Observatory has shown that ultrawealthy individuals in France pay an effective income tax rate of about 0.1%; the National Assembly voted in favor of a 2% minimum tax on wealth exceeding €100 million, or $117 million, earlier this year, but the measure was rejected by the Senate.
Eric Challal, a representative of SUD Rail-Paris, one of two unions that joined the protests on Wednesday, told Euronews that the anger "being expressed today is what we've been feeling all summer, fed up and angry since the Bayrou budget plan was announced, asking us to work more."
"We're fed up with paying, we're working hard, we're barely managing to keep our heads above water and to think that the hole in the deficit would be our fault is unbearable to hear," added Challal.
A university student named Thomas told the outlet that "it's time for Macron and politicians to understand we are serious."
"We're angry with the political system and the fact that the ultrarich and corporations are not paying enough taxes," he said.
The protests included demonstrations at train stations such as Gare du Nord in Paris, one of Europe's busiest travel hubs, where several hundred people gathered Wednesday morning and chants of "Step down, Macron" rang out. Police officers, 6,000 of whom have been deployed in Paris alone to quell the unrest, fired tear gas at the protesters, with some travelers caught in the chaotic scene.
Demonstrators set garbage cans on fire and attempted to block highway traffic in eastern Paris, while police clashed with dozens of students who had blocked the entry of a high school in the area.
The decentralized "Block Everything" movement was organized largely on social media and was originally embraced by far-right activists before garnering the support of progressive France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and left-wing groups including labor unions, which are also planning broader workers' strikes for September 18.
Demands listed in one document that's circulated online include strengthening public services, fighting media consolidation, and taxing the richest corporations, and a survey by the left-wing Jean-Jaurès Foundation found that a majority of people involved with the movement were "educated, highly politicized and angry far-left sympathizers," according to The New York Times.
A recent poll by Ipsos showed that 46% of French people support Block Everything, with strong backing from left-wing voters as well as more than half of far-right National Rally supporters.
Outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Wednesday morning that "law enforcement has the order to not tolerate any violence, any vandalism, any blockage, any occupation of our nation's essential infrastructure." A total of about 80,000 officers were deployed across the country to respond to the demonstrations, and more than 200 people were arrested.
Though Bayrou is no longer in power, Marine Tondelier, the leader of the French Green Party, told the BFMTV news channel on Tuesday that Macron's choice of Lecornu to serve as the new prime minister was a "provocation" that showed a "total lack of respect" for French voters who remain distrustful of Macron's government.
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