Over the past months, there has been wild optimism in financial markets and among mainstream economists and international agencies that Milei’s self-styled ‘chainsaw economics’ was working. Since taking office, Milei had taken a ‘chainsaw’ to government spending in welfare and public services and sacked thousands of public workers. And it is true that, as the inflation rate fell, the official poverty rate also dropped, to 31.6 percent in the first half of 2025. The Buenos Aires election ended the fantasy that Milei’s chainsaw economics and ‘free market’ policies were working. Given the strong peso, Argentine industry cannot compete, so it is not investing at home.