Milei vowed to close Argentina’s central bank — But will he do it?

cointelegraph.com:

The image of a presidential candidate destroying a model of the central bank with a sledgehammer will not leave Argentines' memories for a long time. But once President-elect Javier Milei is seated on the throne on Dec. 10, will he still have the courage to follow a winding and risky path?

Argentina carries — with its nine defaults — the title of world champion in the category of defaulting on risk. It is currently the International Monetary Fund's largest creditor, and with a credit risk assigned by Fitch Ratings as CCC — fourth from the bottom score — it needs to fundamentally change its economy.

I'm no fortune teller, but I can offer some insight into the process. Let’s start by recognizing that it is not impossible for a country to live without a central bank. Currently, there are 198 countries and 180 currencies. Ten percent of them do not use their own currency.

Related: Bitcoin-friendly Javier Milei wins Argentina presidential election

Another important reality is that the IMF does not have “monetary” in its name unintentionally. It likes central banks, and aArgentina’s main creditor, its opinion will be very important in the process.

In a recent campaign ad, Javier Milei appears receiving the clothes of Capitan Ancap, his superhero counterpart, and destroying the argentine Central Bank with Thor's Hammer. pic.twitter.com/qw1MxSDpEG

We also have Argentina's monetary base. According to the county's latest balance sheet, that figure stands at $7.7 billion. (That's 220,000 Bitcoin, for those keeping track, and just slightly more than MicroStrategy's $6.9 billion valuation.) For comparison, the U.S. monetary base is greater than $5 trillion.

That figure suggests the challenge of replacing the monetary base will be great,