- This blog contains the full transcript of a special address by Javier Milei, President of Argentina, delivered at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos.
- Milei discussed the relationship between economic efficiency, ethics and public policy, drawing on economic and philosophical traditions to argue that justice and efficiency are interconnected.
- He outlined his views on free enterprise, institutional frameworks and the role of values in shaping economic growth, referencing Argentina's recent policy reforms and global economic challenges.
[The following is translated from Spanish. This transcript was produced using AI and subsequently edited for style and clarity. The edits do not alter the substance of the speaker's remarks.]
Good afternoon, everyone.
I stand here before you to state categorically that Machiavelli is dead.
For years, our thinking was distorted by the presentation of a false dilemma in the design of public policies, one in which we were supposedly faced with a choice between political efficiency on the one hand and respect for the ethical and moral values of the West on the other.
As Professor Jesús Huerta de Soto points out in his work on dynamic efficiency, from that perspective, efficiency is not compatible with various schemes of equity or justice, but rather arises solely and exclusively from one of them, the one based on respect for private property and the entrepreneurial function.
Therefore, the opposition between the dimensions of efficiency and justice is false and erroneous. That is to say, what is just can't be inefficient, nor can what is efficient be unjust. Actually, from the standpoint of dynamic analysis, justice and efficiency are two sides of the same coin.
Without a doubt, the thinker who purviewed this most clearly was M. Rothbard when he articulated the connection between the dynamic conception of economic efficiency and the realm of ethics. Rothbard considered it essential to establish in advance an adequate ethical framework to foster dynamic efficiency, given our lack of knowledge regarding the ends, means and utility functions that exist in reality.
