Each year the World Economic Forum’s conference in Davos, Switzerland draws the attention of conspiracy theorists. In truth, nothing is happening in the ski town that doesn’t happen every other day of the year:
It’s not the funny business happening behind the scenes that should cause alarm, but what we can see so blatantly in front of our eyes: the calls for higher taxes, the support for a bigger state, the insistence for more red tape (the kind that helps businesses already at Davos secure their position and makes it harder for the entrepreneur to ever join them). It’s picture-perfect crony capitalism – the kind that turns people off the idea of free enterprise ..
But credit goes to the WEF this year for inviting the antidote to the conference’s misguided ideals – and giving him a platform on the centre stage. Argentina’s newly elected President Javier Milei… In a total break with the usual platitudes spouted at Davos, Milei opted instead for an unabashed defence of free market capitalism – the only system, he said, which is really ‘morally desirable’ because of its proved outcomes for people... starting his speech with a history of global growth and prosperity.
What we see is an ‘explosion’ of growth once capitalism is adopted, he told the audience, which takes the ‘shape of a hockey stick’ (i.e. an exponential rise).
‘Thanks to free enterprise capitalism, the world is now living its best moment’ he said. ‘Today’s world is more free, more rich, more peaceful, and more prosperous than in any other time of human history.’
But Milei has no interest in living in the past: indeed he insisted that his country must provide a contemporary example of what can happen when socialism is implemented. The president is currently working to stabilise the Argentenian economy and prepare the way for classically liberal reforms as he tries to get a grip on the country’s inflation rate, which currently sits at over 200 per cent
