Argentina's economic demolition: Javier Milei disappears 11 TONS of gold
Despite being one of Donald Trump’s biggest political investments in Latin America, or perhaps because of it, Argentine President Javier Milei is presiding over a deepening recession. His country’s industrial base is crumbling, the middle class is shrinking, and factories keep closing. Yet Milei’s grip on power has only tightened with the help of powerful patrons in Washington and Tel Aviv.Now, a new scandal has erupted which raises troubling questions about the fate of the nation’s wealth.On October 8, National Audit Office president Juan Manuel Olmos confirmed that Argentina’s Central Bank lost $1.023 billion in gold reserves through operations that moved physical gold out of the country without the public’s consent.The financial loss may be only part of the story. Nearly 11 tons of Argentine gold are unaccounted for. How the gold bars left the country, where they are now, and whether the government can recover them all remain open questions.Beyond the missing gold lies a larger issue: what will remain of Argentina’s national wealth, industrial capacity, and economic sovereignty when Milei’s experiment ends?To explore these questions, we spoke with Fabián Medina, an Argentine economist, educator, author, and media analyst specializing in taxation and macroeconomic policy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrayzone.substack.com/subscribe
