Argentina elects ‘shock therapy’ libertarian Javier Milei as president

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Mr Milei’s challenges are enormous. He will have to deal with the empty coffers of the government and central bank, a creaking $US44 billion ($67.5 billion) debt program with the International Monetary Fund, inflation nearing 150 per cent and a dizzying array of capital controls. Some Argentines had characterised the vote as a choice of the “lesser evil”: fear of Mr Milei’s painful economic medicine versus anger at Mr Massa and his Peronist party for an economic crisis that has left Argentina deeply in debt and unable to tap global credit markets. Mr Milei has been particularly popular among the...