What the free market is doing for Argentina. Teachers using AI to grade papers written by AI. And Democrats retreat on the environment.
What the Free Market Is Doing for Argentina
Argentina was an economic basket case, with hyper-inflation in the triple digits, mountains of government debt, soaring interest rates, business collapse, and rampant poverty.
In December 2023, Argentinians elected Javier Milei as president. He promised free market “shock therapy” to fix the economy. The world press mocked him for his hair, his eccentric personality, and his trust in free market economics. One hundred of the world’s economists signed an open letter warning that Milei’s proposed policies would never work.
Milei slashed the number of government ministries from 18 to 8, letting go 37,000 public sector employees. He cut the federal budget by 30% and balanced it within one month. He deregulated the economy, including throwing out protectionist “Buy Argentina” laws. He dropped price controls.
So how did that work out? When Milei took office, the inflation rate was 25% per month. In May it was only 1.5%. Ending rent controls led to a flood of properties coming onto the market, ending the housing problem and resulting in lower rents than when the rent controls were in effect. Stopping protectionism has brought down prices, particularly for food, medicine, clothing, and appliances. The poverty rate is lower than when Milei took office and the government is now running a surplus.
The Argentinian economy is now growing at a rate of 7.7%. (For comparison, China’s economy has grown at a rate of 5%. The U.S. economy is growing at a rate of 2.4%.)
The editors at National Review say of what some people are calling the “Argentina miracle,”
Milei knows that these are not miracles. They may feel miraculous for people who have been suffering, but they are exactly what economic principles suggest would happen when government controls are removed and people are made free to buy, sell, produce, and consume as they see fit. People have known about this since at least the time of Adam Smith, yet they continue to be surprised when it works.
Free market capitalism. Maybe the United States should try that.
Teachers Using AI to Grade Papers Written by AI
We’ve blogged about how students are using AI to write their papers for them. It turns out, professors are also using AI to grade their papers.
So says Joshua Heavin in Comment, who cites a story in the New York Times and observes the following (my bolds):
Perhaps the most perverse way education is corrupting rather than cultivating the life of the mind is that AI is being used not only to produce but also to analyze assignments: “It’s not just the students: multiple AI platforms now offer tools to leave AI-generated feedback on students’ essays. Which raises the possibility that AIs are now evaluating AI-generated papers, reducing the entire academic exercise to a conversation between two robots—or maybe even just one.” Whatever debasement higher education has endured in past decades and centuries, we are hurtling toward its absolute vacuity. In the most literal sense possible, AI is dehumanizing the moral and intellectual formation that should occur in our educational institutions.
Democrats Retreat on the Environment
A signature issue for Democrats has long been the environment, especially the fear of climate change. This has led Democrats on both the state and national level to impose draconian restrictions on fossil fuels, require expensive environmental impact statements on new projects, and mandate transitions to renewable energy, just to name a few of their environmental policies.
But now, Politico reports: “Stung by the party’s sweeping losses in November and desperate to win back working-class voters, the Democratic Party is in retreat on climate change.”
This is happening nation-wide. New York is slowing rules for “clean” cars and trucks and both New York and Maryland are pausing carbon-trading schemes. On the national level, 36 Congressional Democrats are joining the effort to overturn California’s strict vehicle regulations that have threatened to force auto companies to apply them nationwide.
Democrats are even pulling back environmental regulations in California, the center of environmental activism. Observes Politico‘s Jeremy B. White and Camille von Kaenel,
California, as the state with the strongest suite of climate policies and a decadeslong reputation of stalwart environmentalism, is now becoming an unlikely leader in Democrats’ pivot as they try to respond to cost-of-living concerns that they fret may have cost them the election.
California Governor Newsome is exempting housing, health clinics, and some other priorities from the requirement for environmental reviews. He ordered a revision in the state’s recycling rules to reduce costs to business. The Democratic-dominated state senate is trying to change the automobile fuel rules.
Environmental activists are up in arms, but, says the article,
The backtracking reflects a pervasive sense that once-popular climate policies are exacting a political price by pushing up energy and housing costs, draining support from both Democratic candidates and climate policies themselves.
“For a lot of Democrats, the 2024 election was a reality check about the importance of cost-of-living issues and affordability for Californians,” said Mark Baldassare, survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California. “That’s given policymakers some pause about what is actually workable in terms of environmental policy.”
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