Javier Milei, the libertarian president of Argentina, is seeking to stop the issuance of money by the country’s central bank. Milei stated he would send a bill to Congress to penalize issuing money with jail time, explaining that central bank officials approving these movements would be incarcerated.
Argentine President Javier Milei Seeks to Penalize Central Bank Money Issuance
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Argentine President Javier Milei Aims to Establish Seigniorage as a Crime
Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, is making moves to stop the issuance of Argentine pesos to finance the state. According to local reports, Milei is preparing to send a bill to Congress that would penalize money issuance directly with jail time, preventing officials from the central bank from authorizing money printing operations.
The objective of this law would be to maintain the money supply constant while Milei’s administration cleans the economy. This process would precede the dollarization of the country, which was one of the more relevant promises of Milei during its campaign, but that won’t be able to be implemented this year.
In an interview with a local TV channel, Milei stated:
The project will define seigniorage as a criminal offense. If the central bank finances the treasury, either directly or indirectly, its president, the board of directors, the president of the nation, and the officials who vote for it would end up in jail.
However, this project will have to be discussed and approved in the Argentine Senate, where the president has already faced a defeat with the repeal and subsequent withdrawal of the so-called omnibus law, which proposed several changes to further Milei’s libertarian changes. Experts have also claimed this law violates the already battered independence of the Central Bank of Argentina.
In the same interview, Milei emphasized that dollarizing and ending the central bank were still part of his vision for Argentina. “In my plans, the Argentine peso no longer exists. No one is going to choose it. I continue with the idea of dollarizing when I can do it,” Milei concluded.
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