BONUS EPISODE - Under the skin of Argentina's economic crisis

Published: Jan. 29, 2024, 4:36 p.m.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires last week in protest at the new president Javier Milei\u2019s plans to shake up an economy paralysed by inflation, the highest in Latin America.

The self-styled \u201canarcho-capitalist\u201d wants to introduce new laws to slash public spending, privatise state enterprises and scrap hundreds of what he says are wasteful regulations.

The unions - representing more than six million workers - responded by calling a general strike. It\u2019s a sign of the fear that his plans are sowing. Equally though, many people - most people - are desperate for change as the economic crisis bites deeper and deeper.

From Buenos Aires, Newshour presenter James Menendez digs deeper into Milei the man, his policies and the people who voted for him with Natalie Alcoba, an Argentine journalist who writes for the New York Times; and James Grainger, Editor in Chief of the Buenos Aires Times, an English newspaper in Buenos Aires.