BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

No one quite does populism, like Latin America.

On the left, there was Castro in Cuba and Chavez in Venezuela.

On the right, there was Bolsonaro of Brazil, and, longer ago, Juan Peron of Argentina.

And that country has just entered the second year of the presidency of Javier Millet,

the man who promised to take a chainsaw to Argentina's institutions,

and illustrated this by wielding a real chainsaw.

Millet's progress has been watched eagerly by populists and others abroad

to see if his radical economic solutions will work.

And as of now, there's some evidence that they may be.

So, what has Millet been up to?

Is his plan succeeding? And whether it is or not, what are the lessons for the rest of us?

Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out.

First, how did the state of Argentina's economy set the stage for the election of Millet?

Joining me is Monica de Boowl, Senior Fellow at the

Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. Monica DeBole, was Argentina

always an economic basket case? No, it wasn't. Argentina actually was a very rich country in the early 20th century.

Things started to turn after the Second World War.

There was a moment in time when Argentina basically decided to reorient the entire structure of the country,

both politically and economically. It was in the

process of this movement towards industrialization, the need to develop manufacturing sectors,

because Argentina was essentially a commodity exporter for a very long time. Politically, it was always

...