Many people are heralding this speech given by Javier Milei as a confrontation to the mindset of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos.
Because so many people made a similar assertion, I had to listen to it twice, because I just didn’t get that takeaway. I still don’t. The first 10 minutes is an academic review of the history of free-market capitalism; the latter 10 minutes decries the failures of those economic systems who attempted socialism, including his own homeland of Argentina.
While the last half of the speech is strong, factually good pushback against the academic socialistic mindset, he never really addressed the issue that is at the core of modern, Western, economic corruption – the merge of the corporation and the state.
Capitalism vs Socialism was a debate well covered during the Soviet era and subsequent collapse of the Berlin wall. The 2020’s challenge is entirely different, fascism.
Traditional Fascism was defined as an authoritarian government working hand-in-glove with corporations to achieve totalitarian objectives. Essentially, a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, using severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.
That governmental system didn’t work in the long-term because free people rejected government authoritarianism; so, we went to war and killed the fascist support system. Fascist governments collapsed, and the corporate beneficiaries were nulled and scorned. Then along came a new approach to achieve the same objective.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) was created to use the same fundamental associations of government and corporations. Only this time the corporations organized to tell the governments what to do. The WEF was organized for multinational corporations to assemble and tell the various governments how to cooperate to achieve control.
Fascism is still the underlying premise, the WEF just flipped the internal dynamic.
The assembly of the massive multinational corporations, banks and finance offices now summon the government leaders to come to their assembly and receive their instructions. Some have called this corporatism. However, the relationship between government and multinationals is just fascism essentially reversed with the government doing what the corporations tell them to do.
President Javier Milei is participating in the corporate control system; after all, he’s a politician attending a conference organized by corporations. Extolling the virtues of massive multinational monopolistic corporations, while pretending some form of “free market” system still exists, just seems esoteric (borderline obtuse) to me.
Yes, socialism sucks and always fails. However, in the modern era it is corporate/government fascism that leads to naive support for socialism in a misguided effort to break that public/private partnership.
Milei also held meetings with British foreign minister David Cameron and was “set for a head-to-head with International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva, after Argentina struck a staff level agreement last week to salvage its $44 billion loan program with the fund.”
WATCH FOR YOURSELF – “Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei praised free markets and slammed socialism at Davos on Wednesday (January 17) during the first overseas tour for the self-proclaimed ‘anarcho-capitalist,’ who is battling to fix a major economic crisis at home. During his speech, Milei focused on the role of the state across a wide range of activities, which he said amounted to levers of control rather than allowing citizens the freedom to prosper through their own efforts.”
If you are short on time, start at the 10:00 minute mark.
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I’ll watch it again in the morning, and see if I can find this incredible economic bravery that everyone is talking about. Maybe I just missed it because the translation is a little challenging to keep in flow.
The “I am with you” at the end threw me and left me scratching my head.
While the last half of the speech is strong, factually good pushback against the academic socialistic mindset, he never really addressed the issue that is at the core of modern, Western, economic corruption – the merge of the corporation and the state.
He shotguns a lot of ideas out there in 22 minutes. Many that MAGA would agree with. But maybe we are not as clear as to what the WEF represents as you are. I think there is a tendency to interlink the cultural-Marxism with corporations like AB Inbev. So we see this as a subversive communist takeover. But as you point out, there is a state-corporate partnership to target and exclude political enemies in an authoritarian way, much like fascism. I don’t know that that relationship between politicians and corporate executives has inverted, the state is still the legal authority that drives many of the authoritarian activities aided by corporations (see banks), I think they have merely become more co-dependent or incestuous as they cycle between industry and governance (see Pentagon/MIC, Pharma/FDA, etc.).
It is an anti-collectivist speech, so if we accept that one value of fascism is that it values values Volk over individual liberty, you could say he addresses it obliquely. Milei would have been very young under Peron’s second rise to power, and he makes clear in the speech that his perspective is from the history of socialist Argentina.
I think it’s fair criticism that he doesn’t confront multi-national cartels, back to your lemon analogy, he just says that government intervention is usually counter productive.
That governmental system didn’t work in the long-term because free people rejected government authoritarianism; so, we went to war and killed the fascist support system. Fascist governments collapsed, and the corporate beneficiaries were nulled and scorned. Then along came a new approach to achieve the same objective.
Is that true? Ford. IG Farben (who once employed Theodore Eicke). Daimler Benz. Krupp was forced to sell his assets, but many of these executives got relatively light 12 year sentences and paroled. Ferdinand Porsche was arrested but never tried. Aside from the companies completely bombed out or relocated lock stock and barrel by the Soviets, how many were really punished? The US and the Soviets looted the best technical experts from Germany and made some of them pretty comfortable.
JC1974-
I agree with your points and also appreciate the valuable nuances you draw from them.
I am, like you, I suspect, of the school that believes that the state “…is the legal authority that drives many of the authoritarian activities aided by corporations…”
Indeed, government sets trade policy; it strongly and wrongly intervenes into the marketplace to weaken national currencies for the sake of quelling its own political pressures which it has foolishly brought on itself. It also sets tax policy which can either incentivize business activity or destroy it.
Little wonder, then, that the business sector spends billions on lobbying Congress. And little wonder that government functionaries are most willing to comply for the right terms. And little wonder that the relationship has led to dangerous and incestuous alliances.
In the end, although some find it difficult to determine who is ultimately in control of government policy, to me it’s quite clear that the government holds the strong upper hand because it possesses the great capacity to be proactive, and can, where the will exists, act with lightning speed, whereas the business sector, much like a lion’s prey, is forced to be mindful and apprehensive at all times, and is limited to being merely reactive to the whims of policy.
Can anyone doubt that our current predicament is the result of anything other than a deliberate and malevolent GOVERNMENT PLAN to coopt and coerce the business sector into partnering with it en route to the socialization of the US and world economies?
Can anyone really believe that energy policy is set by the private sector? And what control does the latter have re National Security issues.
Yes, one does see malign partnerships galore, but they are in furtherance of government policy and established law. Granted, the partnerships are made to be palatable to the private sector through inducements and or COERCION (COURT ORDERS, EXEMPTIONS ETC).
If anyone is still in doubt, just ask yourself who is in control of government policy in China? The corporations?
Lest anyone doubt it, I guarantee you that I’ve spent many hours loathing the cowardice of these corporate skunks who have sat by quietly, afraid to speak truth to power; acting as if nothing is wrong, and who have been willing to preside over the socialization of what was once the vibrant, powerful, American Free Enterprise system.
All of that is worthy of the deepest scorn!
mankind’s futile attempt to govern itself and provide it’s needs … ( i’m going with ‘ALMIGHTY GOD’ … CREATOR’ of all that there is and ever will be … … that dusty old manuscript sitting on the next to last shelf … that the maid seems to miss , every time she passes that way … ‘THERE’S MANKIND TICKET TO PROSPERITY AND FREEDOM … but alas … our arrogance and stupidity gets in the way of the simplicity of the words and their deep and lasting wisdom … ( thank ‘GOD’ … this nightmare that humanity has created is almost over …
Globalism vs Liberty.
I listened at the above, then on Aaron Slodov’s “X” (better translation for me, so I was not following in 2 languages). I loved the speech. I have been listening to a lot of James Lindsay’s ‘New Discourses’ (I have been forcing my teen to listen in the car with me) so I am familiar with the WEF/UN agenda and their Marxist theology.
The merging of corporation and state, neo-capitalism, is what is occurring with our Keynesian-trained elites. It is corrupted capitalism, with central bank monetary policy, too-big-to-fail, crony capitalism, never-ending use of continuing resolutions to buy votes and avoid accountability, and a regulatory system that forces those unconnected / wrong-thinking / unwealthy to sell out or close up businesses.
Milei believes business should be left alone for market forces to determine if they succeed or fail. A monopoly is not inherently bad, and should be neither punished nor rewarded by a government if doing lawful business. A bank should fail if it makes poor choices, regardless of size.
The attendees in Milei’s audience call themselves “stakeholder capitalists”. The WEF defines this: “Stakeholder capitalism is a form of capitalism in which companies seek long-term value creation by taking into account the needs of all of their stakeholders, and society at large.” They are exclusively socialists and neo-capitalists who believe they have the Gnostic knowledge to rule the world better than the non-elites, and all of them are at Davos because they are politically connected and making money off of those connections. Milei irritated every one of them.
Catching up on this thread after seeing Milei speech last night – This struck me about the WEF self description of “stakeholder capitalists”. Compare to Benito Musolino description of what Fascism is.
“The State, as conceived of and as created by Fascism, is a spiritual and moral fact in itself, since its political, juridical and economic organization of the nation is a concrete thing; and such an organization must be in its origins and development a manifestation of the spirit. The State is the guarantor of security both internal and external, but it is also the custodian and transmitter of the spirit of the people, as it has grown up through the centuries in language, in customs and in faith. …
It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of the their mission and welds them into unity; harmonizing their various interests through justice, and transmitting to future generations the mental conquests of science, of art, of law and the solidarity of humanity.”
These guys – WEF, are the true Fascist!
It is a spiritual battle, definitely!
Good timing, I saw your response as I was about to catch up on last week’s podcasts, focused on Mussolini:
https://newdiscourses.com/2024/01/fascism-idolatry-of-the-state/
Like Reagan and Thatcher his administration will be sunk by Free Trade nonsense
Trump and MAGA is not Free Trade
its a heavily managed form of economic nationalism as national security
TOTALLY DIFFERENT
I don’t trust this Mileai giy
I read an article on him not too long ago and it said exactly this . He’s taking government controlled properties and resources and selling it to corporations ( for “ capitalism “). It’s a huge sell out … and it’s world wide
Melei specified repeatedly that he was criticizing neo-capitalism, not classical capitalism.
Neocapitalism is defined by worldatlas.com: “Neo-capitalism is a blend of various elements of capitalism with other economic systems. It is a new type of capitalism which emphasizes on the government intervention in the country’s economy to restructure and rescue various big companies which are considered to be too big to fail. The failure of these companies poses a huge risk to the economy. Neo-capitalism is a new type of capitalism as compared to capitalism before the Second World War.
Neo-capitalism is an economic ideology which corrects its excesses by applying various measures which help protect the country’s social well-being. The ideology supports a balance between good public governance, social assistance, good working conditions, low unemployment levels, lower inflation, and economic growth across the nation. It was introduced by the technology firms which were reconstructed during the postwar era.”
Milei reiterated GDP growth repeatedly in his speech because the WEF /UN (and central banks, the IMF, etc.) is replacing it with a concept called “Equitable Growth Indicators” which will be particularly bad for the US (https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/equitable-growth-indicators; https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2023/07/the-egis-analyzing-the-economy-through-an-equitable-growth-lens/).
Look on Lew Rockwell and search Argentina and an article by Helene Glass will pop up describing him as a WEF Propaganda toy and age lays out some very interesting thoughts on him .
MILEI: A WEF Propaganda Toy of Argentina’s debtholders Blackrock, Fidelity and Pimco
Posted on December 29, 2023 by Helena
https://helenaglass.net/2023/12/29/melei-a-tool-of-the-wef/
Milei Promotes ‘Freedom To Transact’ At The World Economic Forum In Davos
Susie Violet Ward Contributor
Bitcoin Journalist And Financial Analyst.
Jan 16, 2024,08:14am EST
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/01/16/milei-promotes-freedom-to-transactat-the-world-economic-forum-in-davos/?sh=2f0fb2a675cd
The Decisive Driving Force to Victory for Javier Milei
01/17/2024
Guillermo Figueroa
https://mises.org/wire/decisive-driving-force-victory-javier-milei
Can New Chef Milei Change Argentina’s Recipe?
G. Patrick Lynch – December 28, 2023
https://www.aier.org/article/can-new-chef-melei-change-argentinas-recipe/
(snip)
In his most recent speech presenting historic and unprecedented cuts in government regulations and spending to the bloated and sclerotic Argentinian bureaucracy, Milei was part educator, part persuader, and part leader.
He always spends a lot of time explaining how monetary policy has contributed to Argentina’s century-long economic collapse, and here again, he reminded his listeners reasonably and calmly, without the chain saw that had been his trademark, that excess government spending causes inflation and serves as a hidden tax that is particularly exploitative of the poor and working classes, who see their savings eroded and salaries diminished. That same monetary tax leads to other effects including a lack of investment in business. When the government is forced to apply capital controls and high tariffs to defend the monetary debasement, other economic distortions emerge. It’s an endless cycle, and once again Milei elegantly described it to the nation.
But he also explained why aggressive cuts in the Argentine bureaucracy were necessary. He began his speech by saying that Argentina’s problems are not the result of “the chef” in the economic kitchen, but rather the recipe. The long-followed collectivist recipe includes not only excessive fiscal spending and money printing, but something equally problematic that the great F.A. Hayek identified in perhaps his most famous journal article.
“The Use of Knowledge in Society” was published by Hayek in the American Economic Review in 1945, and it contains an essential truth that is not easily understood even by brilliant people, let alone folks on the street. When I discussed the article once with Nobel laureate Vernon Smith he admitted that it took him several readings of the piece to understand what Hayek was driving in it. Hayek argued that knowledge is so localized and specific that public sector officials cannot replicate it. The knowledge is dispersed throughout the public and no one person can possess it, process it, and produce better results than a voluntary market when that knowledge is used individually by the participants. Julia Child couldn’t make this recipe work.
He noted that historically the state has been seen as more important than the citizens. He argued that individuals are merely treated as ends of state planning who must show obedience to their government officials. He said that politicians govern the destinies of the citizens, which has merely led to the politicians becoming richer and the nation worse off leaving them with an impoverished nation. No one in Argentina can do anything productive, work, invest, buy, be educated, without getting government approval and permission.
This was not merely a speech; This was a carefully crafted lesson in economic theory and political history that has direct relevance to his audience. The staggering ineptitude of previous governments has resulted in devastating inflation, which every Argentine since birth has suffered through. But it has also made it impossible for Argentines to live as free individuals. The speech resonates because it directly addresses the reality of destroyed hopes and dreams that his supporters live with, and his solution is clear, consistent, and economically sound. The fact that it ends the privileges of what Milei likes to call “the political caste” is merely icing on the cake. He clearly and directly explains, why he’s doing what he’s doing, why it will work, and why the alternatives have failed.
(snip)
Keep in mind Argentina is on the receiving end of the globalist’s’ carbon credit scheme – global taxation to impoverish us and fatten WEFs’ tyrants and elites.
Milei’s sold out – he’ll not bite the hands that feed him.
Javier Milei Goes to Davos & Destroys Socialism And Cultural Marxism
by Paul Dragu
January 18, 2024
https://thenewamerican.com/video/javier-milei-goes-to-davos-destroys-socialism-and-cultural-marxism/
(video snipped; run time = 42:03 minutes)
Argentina’s wild-haired libertarian president, Javier Milei, delivered a 23-minute, no-holds-barred defense of individual liberty and free-market principles at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting. He also ripped into socialism, collectivism, and cultural Marxism in all their forms. On today’s show, we break down Milei’s speech.
Other stories today include:
@ 11:44 | Disease X is coming, and we’d better be ready to lock down and vaccinate again, according to the wannabe rulers at Davos;
@ 22:18 | A Canadian arsonist has just admitted he started 14 forest fires last year;
@ 33:03 | Guest James Howard Kunstler says the globalists are going to lose.
RELATED
(snip)
“Collectivist Experiments Are Never the Solution”: Javier Milei’s Full Davos Speech
by Steve Bonta
January 18, 2024
https://thenewamerican.com/us/economics/collectivist-experiments-are-never-the-solution-javier-mileis-full-davos-speech/
The following is a transcript of Argentinian President Javier Milei’s January 17 speech at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
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Javier Milei at the WEF- Attacking Socialism, Defending Monopolists?
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/javier-milei-at-the-wef-attacking?