President Javier Milei has been on a tear reforming Argentina’s statist economy. How are things going over a year and a half into his term as president? That’s what I wanted to know, so I talked to Daniel Di Martino of the Manhattan Institute, who has been following Argentina closely, for my AIER podcast Econception. We talk about how Milei has cut government spending, gotten inflation under control, achieved a budget surplus and a fast-growing economy simultaneously, and is opening up Argentina’s economy to the rest of the world.

Next, I talk about how Social Security reform might seem politically impossible, but it will have to happen at some point, and the U.S. can learn from other countries’ successes. Aging populations are normal for rich countries, and Germany, Canada, Sweden, and New Zealand all have much more fiscally sustainable retirement programs than the U.S. does.

Then, I talk about the legacy of FedEx founder Fred Smith, who recently died. He took an idea for overnight package delivery that people thought was impossible and turned it into something billions of people take for granted. And it wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for Jimmy Carter getting the federal government out of the way.

For the Paper of the Episode, Daniel picked “PLUS or Minus? The Effect of Graduate School Loans on Access, Attainment, and Prices,” by Sandra Black, Lesley Turner, and Jeffrey Denning. Turns out federal student loans for graduate students are mostly waste!

Please listen and subscribe to Econception by clicking here.