In inaugural speech, Argentina's Javier Milei prepares nation for painful shock adjustment

abcnews.go.com:

Right-wing economist Javier Milei has been sworn in as Argentina’s president and has immediately moved to prepare the public for a painful shock adjustment with drastic public spending cuts

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — It wasn't the most uplifting of inaugural addresses. Rather, Argentina's newly empowered President Javier Milei presented figures to lay bare the scope of the nation's economic “emergency,” and sought to prepare the public for a shock adjustment with drastic public spending cuts.

Milei said in his address to thousands of supporters in the capital, Buenos Aires, that the country doesn't have time to consider other alternatives.

“We don’t have margin for sterile discussions. Our country demands action, and immediate action," he said. «The political class left the country at the brink of its biggest crisis in history. We don’t desire the hard decisions that will need to be made in coming weeks, but lamentably they didn't leave us any option.”

South America's second largest economy is suffering 143% annual inflation, the currency has plunged and four in 10 Argentines are impoverished. The nation has a yawning fiscal deficit, a trade deficit of $43 billion, plus a daunting $45 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund, with $10.6 billion due to the multilateral and private creditors by April.

“There’s no money,” is Milei’s common refrain. He repeated it Sunday to explain why a gradualist approach to the situation, which would require financing, was not an option.

But he promised the adjustment would almost entirely affect the state rather than the private sector, and that it represented the first step toward regaining prosperity.

“We know that in the short term the situation will worsen, but soon we will