Argentine President Javier Milei returned to the Bolsa de Comercio de Rosario to deliver a three-part address at the institution's 142nd anniversary, framing his speech around country risk, the economic cycle, and loan default rates — and using the occasion to rebuff what he described as politically motivated attacks on his administration.
Milei recalled that a year earlier, at the same venue, he had presented an unconventional analysis linking interest rates to the exchange rate, using hand-drawn charts. He said journalists had dismissed that earlier address as disconnected from reality, but argued that the subsequent course of events had vindicated his projections.
The speech was organised into three sections. In the first, Milei introduced the academic concept of "repugnant markets," arguing that political opponents were deploying this framing to run a smear campaign against the government. In the second section, he addressed macroeconomic policy, insisting that because his government had publicly announced its measures in advance and then implemented them exactly as stated, it cannot be held responsible for current default levels. He contrasted this with what he called the standard political practice of breaking promises, asserting that he is "obsessed" with keeping all of his.
On the question of default rates specifically, Milei argued that Argentina's default rates are not materially different from those recorded in the United States, Chile, Brazil and neighbouring countries. He also attributed part of the recent increase in defaults to credit rationing and loans issued during earlier periods of higher country risk, weaker economic activity and falling real wages, rather than to the government's current policies.
He also referenced an episode in which, after the US Treasury provided Argentina with a currency swap and signalled its support, people in Argentina moved to speculate against those same dollars. That episode, he said, resulted in losses of more than 1,500 million dollars for those involved.
In the third and final section, Milei stated his intention to examine the microeconomics of credit and to demonstrate that the proposed remedies being floated publicly would be worse than any problem they purport to solve. He added that he would also frame the discussion in moral terms, around what kind of society Argentina wishes to become.
Milei attributed the intensity of the current debate to the approaching electoral period — with elections due the following year — characterising critics as forces seeking to preserve what he called a "corrupt and clientelist status quo."
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