Why? Is Argentina central to US national security or economic interests?
This Bloomberg article doesn’t explain the economic reasoning. And unless there’s going to be some conditionality regarding the (overvalued) pegged rate on the Argentine currency (as Mark Sobel noted in NYT), then it’s going to be wasted money.
And shouldn’t we be coordinating with the IMF re: conditionality etc.?
Personally, I saw a lot more reason to support Mexico in 1994 using the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), than Argentina in 2025. Mexico had collateral. What does Argentina have? I’ll wait to see if the critics of the 1994 use of the ESF speak up now (at least, those who are still alive).
“What does Argentina have?”
It has an authoritarian ally of Donald Trump. Milei has expressed his full support for Bolsonaro, Orban, Donald Trump, Elon Musk and yes, Charlie Kirk. The $20 billion pledge is effectively a campaign donation from US taxpayers to prop up Milei who faces disappointed voters in the mid-term elections next month.
Meanwhile Trump is using his tariffs to undermine democracy in Brazil, where Milei’s pal Bolsonaro was convicted of insurrection for organizing a coup. As a fellow insurrectionist, Trump has great sympathy for Bolsonaro.
Here is Elon Musk in 2023: “Holy sh*t. Argentina has just elected Javier Milei as their next president. Prosperity is ahead for Argentina.”
Why doesn’t nazi sympathizer Elon Musk bail out his friend Milei instead of US taxpayers? He’s got the money. Recall it was Milei who handed the autographed chainsaw to Musk that he waved around at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last February.
It’s because Argentina is “systemically important”. Bessent said so. After all, total trade between Argentina and the U.S. was $26 billion last year, with the U.S. runnung a bilateral surplus.
Just to show how really systemically important Argentina is, U.S. imports run at about $400 billion per month, so…
Off topic – “Could you guys come back and run the government for us?” Part 3*:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/24/politics/doge-federal-workers?cid=ios_app
GSA has asked hundreds of DOGE buyout recipeints to come back to work. So this “money-saving” operation paid a bunch of necessary workers for a half-year-long vacation, and now is bringung them back. I guess what we need is someone in high government office who understands that running a vast real estate operation requires more than “big balls”.
*Part 3 because the IRS and Park Service have already recalled DOGEd workers.
Off topic again – China’s demographics:
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3372-1.html?
Nothing in the broad strokes that those with even casual interest in China didn’t already know. The pitch seems to be toward Chinese policymakers rather than Western officials – an evolution in RAND’s business plan.
What interests me, aside from the thi gs we already know, is how China’s demographic future lines up against Xi’s hegemonic aspirations. A rapidly rising dependence ratio means resources for production and the military will become increasingly scarce. We might, for instance, be seeing a rapid build up of Chinese military power because planners realize the window for grabbing hegemonic dominance will close in the next couple of decades – need to present the region with a fait accompli before China’s capacity fades.
This also has implications for those who do not favor Chinese hegemony. Resources dedicated to resisting China now may pay less expensive dividends in the future, when China will no longer need to be resisted all that much.
It’s not a monetary issue.
https://asiatimes.com/2025/05/china-paves-path-for-south-americas-break-from-us/
https://www.newsweek.com/china-sends-navy-ship-america-backyard-2126157
https://latinvex.com/latin-america-how-china-expands-influence/
Biden and Obama didn’t seem to recognize the issues. Trump was under attack his first administration, so his focus was inward at the time.
“It’s” not a monetary issue? What’s not?
Biden and Obama didn’t recognize “the” issues? What issues?
Are you being intentionally obscure or do you need to think a little harder about what you actually mean?
And the bit about Trump turning inward because he was under attack? Trump is a self-declared “America first” nationalist with no diplomatic experience, a populist demagogue. His focus has always been inward, always towad his own gain. And all presidents come under attack. Trump just wants to give rube MAGA supporters another reason for outrage. Apparently, it’s working.
This may be your dumbest post yet. In a time in which the US is abandoning former allies all over the world, claiming that Trump is looking outward not inward requires mind-boggling amounts of ignorance.
Sure is hard for a Russian troll these days. It used to be so much easier to make these arguments sound plausible, but Trump keeps screwing that up for you.
Okay, this is from Reuters, which is on a roll lately.
Bessent pledged $20 billion to prop up Argentina and their peso yesterday, so Argentina could eliminate their peso stabilization export tax on grains today, so they can lower prices to sell all of their soybeans to China, so China doesn’t have to buy soybeans from American farmers, so Trump has to use taxpayer money to subsidize broke American farmers.
Helluva job, there Sparky.
Argentina, our strategic economic ally, eh?
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-expands-argentina-soybean-buying-20-cargoes-traders-say-2025-09-24/
Here’s the kicker –
In a static world, when China buys outside the U.S., there are still the same number of beans in the world, so the U.S. sells elsewhere. But it’s not a static world. China is helping Argentina and parts of Africa to expand production. U.S. exports may be supplanted over the long run.
Doesn’t look like a coincident, either. Among the many strengths of the U.S. which China sees as Chinese vulnerabilities is our huge farm exports. So China is building a supply network to replace our farm exports. The felon-in-chief’s tariff buffoonery is accelerating the process.