The key to Milei's government program is the “fiscal anchor,” they say and repeat around the President and his Minister of Economy.
And they also say it from the IMF.
For example, through the deputy director sent to the country, Gita Gopinath, who highlighted that this “anchor”
is even more ambitious than the one they had proposed
in the agreement.
The metaphor of the anchor does nothing more than refer to the fact that the State (national and provincial)
should not spend more than what they earn
.
A simple idea that, after successive economic failures in the country, became very popular, to the point of having been
the workhorse of the campaign that brought Milei to the presidency
.
Today there is a majority opinion that we must take care of State expenses, that “there is no money.”
And although it is reasonable, the worrying thing is that there does not seem to be
a view at the Government's small table that goes beyond this first objective
.
Or, in other words, there does not seem to be concern about
the risks
of adjusting thoroughly, without discriminating the opportunities that certain
strategic activities
open for the development of the country and its people, such as
science, technology or education
.
These days, the national universities expressed their concern about the
lack of updating the budget
, while the
withdrawal of educational funds
from the provinces enabled a conflict in the classrooms.
There is no need to resort to the trite argument of the NASA space agency and the billions of dollars it has annually, coming from the contributions of American taxpayers.
More than US$25 billion in 2023.
Last week, in addition, the US government - a paradigm of liberalism and the minimal State - announced
subsidies to the chip industry for US$ 52 billion
(double the NASA budget), with the main goal of competing with China.
There are already 170 companies on the list to collect thanks to
a law approved by both major parties.
Milei has just returned from that country and will know well that there - as in the most developed nations -
strategic activities receive state support
.
There will be more or less fiscal anchor, but that is not touched on.
It can be managed better, but not defunded.
Lest everything end up like in that story of the poor farmer, who was giving his donkey less and less food and one day when he found it dead on the ground, he exclaimed:
“How bad luck I have!
Now that the donkey had learned to work without eating, he goes and dies
. "