Nobel Laureate in Economics Paul Krugman criticized the US$20 billion package in support from the United States to Argentina, announced on Thursday, 9. Krugman accused Donald Trump’s government of promoting a “billion-dollar bailout” to benefit Wall Street allies. In a text published on his website, the economist stated that North American support for Argentine president, Javier Milei, represents “help to Bessent’s friends” – in reference to Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent – and not to the strategic interests of the United States.
Krugman highlighted the contrast between the “hatred of any type of humanitarian aid”, the cutting of which “could cause the avoidable death of millions of children in poor countries”, and the willingness to finance “a right-wing government with a history of corruption, political instability and nine sovereign defaults”.
For the economist, “there is no plausible scenario in which even US$20 billion would save the failed economic strategy of “, based on an exchange rate stabilization policy that “Latin America has turned into a museum of failures”. He recalled that he witnessed the collapse of Argentine convertibility in 2001 and that the current plan repeats the same script of “initial euphoria followed by disaster”.
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Krugman argues that the American package has no economic or political justification, serving only to “allow funds to sell Argentine assets at inflated prices before the peso falls again”.
According to him, “while millions of children die due to lack of aid, American taxpayers pay for a useless rescue for Elon Musk of the South” – referring to Milei.
