How the U.S. government bought an election, rescued some Wall Street bigshots — and left you with the tab

Argentina went broke again successful September 2025. I cognize — it’s similar saying Congress spent wealth it doesn’t have. But this time, the libertarian was losing.

Argentina President Javier Milei, the chainsaw-wielding anarcho-capitalist who promised to pain down Argentina’s bloated government, was getting whooped by the Peronists — the aforesaid economical arsonists who’d spent 70 years proving you can’t people your mode to prosperity. In September, Milei’s La Libertad Avanza enactment mislaid the Buenos Aires provincial elections by 13 points.

• My sons volition each inherit $500K laundromats from their grandparents. How bash we support their spouses retired of it?

• JPMorgan conscionable one-upped the astir bullish telephone connected Wall Street for the S&P 500 adjacent year

Financial markets panicked accordingly. In Argentina, the peso dropped 5%. Stocks cratered 10%. Bonds posted their worst time since the country’s 2020 default. Congressional elections were slated for Oct. 26, and governmental analysts gave Milei’s reforms a coin-flip accidental of survival.

On Sept. 22, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publically promised Argentina “large and forceful” American support.

One week later, the Treasury announced a $20 cardinal currency swap financed done America’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, which Argentina utilized to marque its Nov. 1 IMF indebtedness payment. The U.S. Treasury drew $900 cardinal from America’s SDR account; Argentina’s holdings roseate by the aforesaid amount.

Over consequent weeks, the Treasury spent $400 cardinal propping up the Argentine peso.

On Oct. 14, Bessent announced plans for an further $20 cardinal private-debt facility, bringing the full bundle to a imaginable $40 billion.

U.S. President Donald Trump explicitly tied the bailout to Argentina’s predetermination — wide viewed arsenic a referendum connected Milei. Said Trump: “If helium wins, we’re staying with him, and if helium doesn’t win, we’re gone.”

On Oct. 26, Milei’s enactment won decisively with 41% of the ballot versus 31% for the Peronists. In Buenos Aires province, wherever the libertarians mislaid by 13 points successful September, they won by a fractional point. Milei’s conjugation tripled its legislature representation.

Most radical deliberation this is simply a communicative astir Milei’s comeback. It’s not. It’s a communicative astir America turning its fiscal occurrence hose into a gun. And each clip you constituent a weapon astatine someone, you’d amended retrieve they’re watching and learning.

Argentina controls the world’s second-largest lithium reserves — captious for electric-vehicle batteries and defence systems. China has been expanding its beingness done mining operations, abstraction facilities and larboard access.