“As the great says Jesus Huerta de Sotoanti-poverty plans generate more poverty, the only way out of poverty It is with more freedom.” This was a phrase she uttered in the middle of the inaugural speech Javier Milei, during his inauguration as President of the Nation in Argentina last December. If he was surprising, it was precisely because this man is Spanish and one of the Argentine president’s top references. Huerta is an economist and thinker reference of libertarian “anarcho-capitalism” and his extremist discourse has managed to conquer Milei, who adores him and has even claimed that he is his “disciple.”
There is a close relationship between the Spanish economist and the Argentine president and this Friday they will meet again in Madrid at a time of high diplomatic tension between Spain and Argentina. He economist will be with Javier Milei during the presentation of the Juan de Mariana Prize for his “exemplary defense of the ideas of freedom” during the “Freedom Dinner” gala to be held at the Madrid Casino. The author and thinker already received this same award almost a decade ago, in 2014. Hours before, the head of state will receive Isabel Diaz Ayuso the International Medal of the Madrid’s community. This in a context, where the confrontation between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, his government teamand the Argentine president does not stop growing.
Jesus Soto Garden (Madrid, 1956) has a Doctor in Law and Economics, has four doctorates and is known for having written multiple essays, in addition to the thesis Socialism, economic calculation and business function. His books have been translated into 17 languages, including Hindi, Arabic and Korean. The economist belongs to liberal institutions, such as the Ludwig von Mises Institute or the Mont Pelerin Society. For this reason, since 2000 he has been a professor at the Rey Juan Carlos University and directs a Master in Economics from the Austrian School, an ultraliberal current that maintains that economic decisions should not be made by the State or any other central authority, but by individuals.
But in addition to being economical, he is also a businessman. Soto Garden presides over España SA, an insurance company that his grandfather, Jesús Huerta Peña, founded in 1928, and which he inherited from his father. For this reason, according to The world, is located in the position 359 of the richest in Spainbeing the 74th in the Community of Madrid, with a total net worth of 160 million of euros, as of February 2024.
If Milei and the professor met, it was thanks to the fact that, years before he began his presidential race, when he was presenting one of his books on the radio, a listener sent him a recording of the university classes Introduction to Economics that Huerta del Soto teaches. They were recorded and uploaded to the Internet by journalist Fernando Díaz Villanueva during the 2009-2010 academic year. This is how the academic and businessman rose to fame. “They were recordings of a lesson in which the teacher discussed how prices can be used as a mechanism to transmit information, for coordination and economic adjustment, which in turn showed how socialism is inapplicable, since, in the absence of property privately, prices cannot be applied, leading to total chaos. I immediately became his follower.“, explained the current Argentine president in the choral book The Emergence of a Tradition: Essays in Honor of Jesús Huerta de Soto, Volume II: Philosophy and Political Economy.
The last time Milei and Jesus Huerta de Soto, It was the last time that the Argentine president set foot in Spain, it was on an unofficial trip last May, in which presented his latest book, The path of the libertarian (2022, Planet), met with several Spanish companiesin addition to attending the Vox Europa Viva 24 event. On this occasion, as anticipated VozpópuliHuerta de Soto and Milei ate together in a “relaxed atmosphere” in which Other Spanish liberal economists were present, such as Philipp Bagusprofessor of economics at the Rey Juan Carlos University and a person Huerta de Soto completely trusts.
This Friday Milei has a full agenda. The president will not see the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, after the Argentine called his wife, Begoña Gomez, “corrupt”, which is why Spain decided to withdraw its ambassador in Argentina. However, he will do it this time with the Madrid president, Isabel Diaz Ayusowhich will award him a medal.
