Milei signs decree with 366 reforms, repealing 30 laws

Milei signs decree with 366 reforms to deregulate Argentina

On December 20, 2023, Javier Milei signed the most ambitious Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) in recent Argentine history on national television: 366 reforms to deregulate the economy bypassing Congress. The message lasted just over fifteen minutes and listed thirty measures, mostly repealing existing laws. The bet is total and the timeline, minimal. There is no anesthesia.

Which laws does Milei’s DNU repeal?

The Rent Law falls, as do the Supply Law, the Gondola Law, the National Purchase regime, and the Ministry of Economy's Price Observatory. Industrial and Commercial Promotion also disappear, along with the state company regime and the norm preventing privatization of public enterprises. All state-owned companies become joint-stock corporations for subsequent privatization. Aerolíneas Argentinas opens up to full or partial sale of its shares. Open skies policy, tourism deregulation, and satellite internet regulation are enabled. The Civil and Commercial Code is tweaked to strengthen contractual freedom and ensure obligations incurred in foreign currency are settled in the agreed currency. Private health insurance plans join the social works system with electronic prescriptions. Football clubs can become joint-stock companies. The Land Law is repealed.

Official diagnosis: 15% GDP deficit and 20 points of emission

Milei presented the picture before the pruning. A country with a consolidated deficit of 15% of GDP —5% from the Treasury and 10% from the Central Bank—, the highest "white" tax pressure in the world, 20 points of GDP emitted to finance spending, and the worst inflation crisis in forty years. Two hyperinflations without wars involved. 50% of the population below the poverty line and 10% in indigence, according to the president himself. "There are five million Argentines who cannot afford to eat," said the president. With this scenario, the official argument is that there is no room for gradualism.

Dollar rents and the fine print on deposits

Critical reading of the package points to second-round effects. It is argued that rents will be set in dollars, that free access to land for foreign funds advances with the repeal of the protective law, that contracts can be denominated in foreign currency, and that strike rights and severance pay are limited. And the Leliq bomb reappears: the Central Bank debt instrument that, according to this view, was already used to deactivate Lebacs, and whose resolution would involve liquefying fixed-term savings by lowering interest paid. Caputo himself is targeted by this criticism as the one who launched that mechanism during Macri's government. To liquefy is to liquidate, they summarize. The diagnosis made by this reading is brutal: it is not a rescue plan, it is a looting.

The mirror of the Rodrigazo

The historical parallel drawn in the thread points to 1975. Celestino Rodrigo's plan combined strong devaluation, hikes in utilities, transport, and fuels —up to 180%— and caps on wage increases agreed in collective bargaining. Inflation jumped from 24% in 1974 to 182% in 1975 and peine, according to that narrative, a decade and a half of runaway prices.

"He already warned what he was going to do"

On the other side is the argument of coherence. A candidate who detailed his program, promised no subsidies or candy, announced shock and accelerated liberalization, wins and ten days later applies exactly that. Blaming him for keeping his word is, at minimum, curious. The circulating analogy is that of the consumer quitting heroin: withdrawal is inevitable and continuing to supply the dose is not mercy. Added to this is the mirror of El Salvador, with 500 days without kidnappings or murders attributed to Bukele's management, which some present as proof that breaking consensus can work. And some argue in the thread that part of the criticisms aim for the country to sink so they can blame the right.

Congress does not sign a blank check

The institutional front peine in parallel. The majority of parliamentary forces —Radicals, Civic Coalition, Federal Change, and provincial parties— coincided in demanding that the DNU content be processed as bills, and Unión por la Patria initiated negotiations to repeal it. The decree hung in the air. On the streets, nurses overflowed the anti-protest protocol and marched toward Plaza de Mayo: the calculation that only piqueteros would mobilize was debunked within hours.

There is also an expectation, not officially confirmed, of more measures in the coming days, described as a "cold shower" in which, according to that critical reading, part of the population is surplus. The second big package is already on the table for those who support it. If the first generates this level of resistance with the decree still unconsolidated, the calculation of enduring the shock without a net —no parliament, no streets, no reserves— is the exact point where analysis stalls.