When Javier Milei took office as president of Argentina in December 2023, the global libertarian movement witnessed something that had never happened before: an avowed anarcho-capitalist became a head of state. Milei had come to power, moreover, having regularly cited legends of the Austrian School of Economics such as Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. Yet, like any political movement, Mileism[1] would also draw on the ideological support of intellectuals. In this case, these were not the usual intellectuals of statism, but rather intellectuals who had built their careers by advocating against statism itself. From the outset, this posed a challenge to justifying full support for any head of state. And this support arrived. Academic leaders from all over the world endorsed Milei. Nonetheless, some academics associated with the Mises Institute—the global hub of Austro-libertarianism—played a prominent role. Led by Jesús Huerta de Soto (JHS), a scholar of exceptional prestige and Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute, these academics took it upon themselves to promote Milei and his administration as a kind of Austro-libertarian revolution for posterity.
It all turned out to be a hoax, and a fairly predictable one. For Milei was neither a libertarian nor an Austrian economist; he was, and remains, a neocon best classified as a neoclassical economist. And his administration ended up being a resounding failure; a spectacle of public debt, money printing, and an increasingly Zionist police state.[2] Not to mention Milei’s foreign policy, which has been—even before he was president—contrary to the antiwar cause.
More than two years later, and with overwhelming evidence everywhere contradicting Milei’s supposed Austro-libertarian heroism, on March 21, 2026, I posted a message on X with an excerpt video from JHS’s speech at the 2026 Austrian Economics Research Conference (AERC):
Many followers of the Austro-libertarian tradition in political and economic thought will, for some time, remain unable to grasp the shamefulness of this particular moment and the way in which it has dishonored the memory of Mises and Rothbard within the Mises Institute itself. pic.twitter.com/xH5IRxHkbe
— Oscar Grau (@ograu90) March 21, 2026
In the final minutes of his speech, delivered at an institute founded with Rothbard’s help, JHS effusively praised Milei—the clearest antichrist to the Austro-libertarian movement that has ever been known—as the greatest champion of Austro-libertarianism of all time.
Even though JHS’s words should be enough to explain just how embarrassing the whole thing was, the shame of that moment will become clearer than ever when we discuss the visit of the people in the photo accompanying JHS that day. What seemed like a routine event at the Mises Institute was, in fact, the cherry on top of something that had been brewing within the Institute for quite some time: moral corruption and a betrayal of Rothbard’s legacy.[3]
Let’s start here. What do JHS, Philipp Bagus (Fellow at the Mises Institute), and Bernardo Ferrero (Mises University Alumnus) have in common, beyond their consistent support for Milei? Well, all three are affiliated with the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC)—a public university in Madrid, Spain—and are also connected with Argentine diplomat Alejandro Nimo.
Attached to this group is Diego Macana Roa, who manages a propaganda X account for the Milei administration with the name of “Escuela Austriaca de Economía” (Austrian School of Economics). Macana, who has been very active throughout Milei’s presidency, has the job of associating Mileism, as twisted as possible, with Austrian economics and libertarianism. Besides this, Macana regularly engages in political proselytizing for Milei’s political party.
In December 2024, Nimo criticized Hans-Hermann Hoppe and described the Milei administration as “anarcho-capitalist.” At the time, I defended Hoppe and reminded readers that Nimo was a political chameleon, one of the many of this type working at Milei’s command.[4] But that hardly ever worried our Mileists. In fact, pivoting on Nimo and Macana, the interactions between their X accounts and those of JHS (a, b, c, d), Bagus (a, b, c, d), and Ferrero (a, b, c, d) make up a collection of meetings and mutual praising.[5]
JHS’s role is so crucial for Milei’s Austro-libertarian reputation that the academic journal[6] Procesos de Mercado (Market Processes)—of which JHS is the editor and founding editor—reissued a long propaganda article originally published by the Mises Institute in 2024. In it, Bagus and Ferrero attempted to defend Milei from my criticism on LewRockwell.com and Mises.org.[7] Bagus, for his part, continued to support Milei multiple times not only on the Mises Institute’s website but also on others. Even Nimo has already appeared in Procesos de Mercado, and several articles[8] by JHS himself have been published to promote Milei (a, b, c, d).
Also in September 2024, a book by Bagus paying tribute to Milei was released, which has since been translated into a dozen languages. And to make matters worse and further complicate Bagus’s conflicts of interest, his wife—who also comes from the URJC—was hired by the Milei administration in 2025 to fill a position for the Argentine government in Madrid.
In addition, JHS’s Mileism has set an example for the equally regrettable Asociación Libertaria Austriaca (Austrian Libertarian Association) (ALA), founded by JHS’s students, which is yet another group complicit in the Mileist fraud. The president and vice president of the ALA are Miguel Alonso Cancino and Alfonso Muñoz, and JHS himself serves as the honorary president of the ALA. The group is active on social media, positioning itself in favor of Milei in terms as propagandistic as those of JHS, and also showing support for US intervention in Venezuela.[9]
Among ALA’s collaborators are other organizations, such as the neocon-friendly Juan de Mariana Institute from Spain and the internationally stupid Students for Liberty. And very recently, ALA sponsored the latest Madrid Economic Forum, an event packed with Mileists, Zionists, and the participation of Milei himself as one of the speakers. Among the speakers were also Daniel Lacalle (a regular contributor to Mises.org), and Manuel Llamas (the director of the Juan de Mariana Institute[10]), who are both propagandists for Milei and Israel.
Five people remain unnamed in the photo. Miguel Alonso Neira is the technical co-director of the Master’s Degree Program in Austrian Economics at the URJC, and he is also part of Nimo’s entourage. Óscar Carreiro also teaches at the URJC, but he is fortunately not known for supporting Milei. David Howden is a Fellow at the Mises Institute who showed himself quite supportive of Milei in the past but has had no contribution to Milei’s propaganda since 2023. Daniel Gallego is the chief editor of Procesos de Mercado. And last, Cristóbal Matarán, who wrote a blog about the trip to the AERC 2026. There, Maratán recounts:
… JHS supports the liberal reforms carried out by the Milei administration (Salerno does too, by the way), while Hoppe observes that Milei aligns himself internationally with the USrael, UK, or European Union spheres of influence, to name a few, while distancing himself from the spheres of influence of Russia, Iran, and China.
This really rubs Hoppe the wrong way… The point is that, by association, anyone who gets close to Satanyahu must be complicit in everything the Israeli army does in Gaza. Even if it is a strategic alliance of a country (a non-entity in international politics) in utter ruin that wants to distance itself from utterly unreliable international allies.
Maratán’s view reminds me of Bagus and Ferrero’s defense of Milei, which in turn reminds me of an even older email from JHS to me, where JHS’s arguments were the same:
While Grau devotes great attention to foreign policy, not so much importance should realistically be given to Milei’s positioning in “international politics”, since Argentina practically does not influence anything on that level. The support and change of bloc executed by Milei implies no moving away from the ideal with respect to the previous situation. His foreign policy stance is, for practical purposes, purely testimonial.
If Matarán and his ilk were right[11] about the irrelevance that Milei’s foreign policy should have for libertarians, Walter Block would still be a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute.[12] For no one would have to attach any importance to Block’s despicable Zionism, as he exerted no practical influence on the bombing of Gaza. But how ridiculous and hypocritical can the Mileists be?[13] They are quick to point out Milei’s occasional references to Rothbard, but what about his constant and more relevant Zionism amid the mass slaughter perpetrated by USrael?[14]
In any case, it is utterly unacceptable for libertarians to excuse Milei’s foreign policy, especially because Argentina faces no real or immediate threats. Instead, choosing to vociferously cheer on USrael and to feed the war propaganda machine is a complete insult to libertarian principles and Rothbard’s legacy. Nevertheless, Milei would do well by coming out tomorrow and stating that he is not—and never was—a libertarian, which would significantly mitigate the damage caused by his association with the libertarian movement. Sadly, we cannot expect his propagandists to clarify that, either. As if all this were not enough, much of the information shared here about Milei’s academic servants at the URJC was also duly shared a year ago with Joseph Salerno himself,[15] who is the academic vice president of the Mises Institute.[16]
After all the embarrassment that Mileism has brought upon the Austro-libertarian movement worldwide, the Mises Institute has ended up more closely associated with the Mileists than ever before.[17] Thus, in a sense, Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute Per Bylund is right: the Spanish Armada has taken Auburn, but only thanks to the Institute’s own decay. And yet, in fairness, it is actually the downfall of the Spanish Armada, because they sink with their Mileist ship into the depths of the sea, and no one will be able to save that cheap ship from its fate.[18]
Now, the true Austro-libertarians of the world—who have sided with Hoppe in the face of the Mises Institute’s infamous behavior toward him—have a moral obligation. They should keep holding the Institute and the Mileists intellectuals accountable, since Milei’s Austro-libertarian reputation would have been practically nil if not for the assistance of all his bootlickers.
______________________________________
Notes
[1] For a brief overview of Milei’s political movement, see my articles “Milei’s Political Game” (September 24, 2024) and “Milei’s Political Caste” (November 5, 2024) for Mises.org.
[2] For a more recent in-depth analysis refuting Milei’s propaganda, see Saifedean Ammous, “Javier Milei’s Austrian Scam by the Numbers,” Property and Freedom Journal (May 18, 2026).
[3] For a disturbing story about this, see Hans-Hermann Hoppe, “Mises Institute: Quo Vadis?,” Property and Freedom Journal (March 25, 2026). And for more about the general decline of the Mises Institute, see my article “The Mises Institute Versus the Legacy of Murray Rothbard” (April 2, 2026).
[4] Nimo still despises Hoppe, as he thinks that Hoppe “no longer knows what he’s saying.”
[5] Similarly, Nimo and Macana also share their own (a, b).
[6] The journal is supported with the collaboration of the URJC.
[7] I have debunked Bagus and Ferrero’s attempt through various pieces for Unz.com, and the Rothbard Institute (Brazil) has published a compilation of them that includes an appendix and a new conclusion. In this regard, even though the outreach director of the Mises Institute has backed the Institute’s stance of allowing debate on the merits of a fraud like Milei, Ryan McMaken—the Institute’s chief editor—actually refused to publish an earlier version of my monetary response to Bagus and Ferrero.
[8] Among them, “A Brief Note on a Historic Proposal by Argentine President, Javier Milei” and “Professor Jesús Huerta de Soto’s Acceptance Address at the Casa Rosada” were also featured on Mises.org.
[9] The ALA has also promoted other advocates for Israel and Donald Trump aside from Milei.
[10] As a hotbed of neoconservative interests in the Spanish-speaking world, the Juan de Mariana Institute has remained silent on the genocide of the Palestinians all this time. Meanwhile, following a 15-minute speech by JHS celebrating Milei, the same institute honored Milei in 2024 with its annual award.
[11] For a thorough dismantling of the “Austro-libertarian” excuses for Milei’s foreign policy, see my article “Javier Milei Is a Neocon” (July 2, 2025) for Unz.com.
[12] In my article “In Defense of Murray Rothbard’s Legacy” (January 8, 2026) for Unz.com, I argued for the revocation of JHS and Bagus’s honorary statuses at the Mises Institute.
[13] For a detailed look at a prime example of Mileist hypocrisy, see my article “Serving the Devil to Help Milei Plunder Argentina” (September 19, 2025), in which I expose JHS’s intellectual cover for Milei.
[14] This apologetic attitude toward Milei has been endorsed by other scholars at the Mises Institute as well, such as Manuel García, a Summer Research Fellow at the Institute (2021-2025), who stated in 2025 that Milei’s Zionist stance was inconsequential to the things he cared about.
[15] In an email sent a year ago to several key figures and friends, including Salerno, I warned of the existence of a network of propagandists among those who were supposed to be our strongest allies in the Spanish-speaking world. Likewise, McMaken and other members of the Mises Institute’s editorial team were also informed in 2025 about the baffling mistakes made by JHS and Bagus regarding Milei.
[16] Hoppe’s postscript to his article “Mises Institute: Quo Vadis?” highlights the deception of donors and Lew Rockwell’s removal on health grounds. Additionally, he again criticizes Salerno’s betrayal and the Mises Institute’s poor intellectual output in Rothbard’s centenary year.
[17] What ultimately led me to part ways with the Mises Institute—rather than the lack of promotion of my articles—was a clear propaganda effort by the Institute in the month before JHS’s nefarious speech.
[18] Another important Spaniard that has spoken very highly of Milei is Gabriel Calzada, who, along with JHS, also gave a speech during the presentation of the 2024 Juan de Mariana Award to Milei. Calzada is the president and founder of the Juan de Mariana Institute and a major player in the academic industry. Then there is the different but also unfortunate case of Miguel Anxo Bastos, a scholar and popularizer of Austro-libertarianism who is just as famous as JHS. While not exactly a Mileist like JHS, Bastos was generally lukewarm toward Milei—making Bastos a disappointing case for any self-respecting Austro-libertarian in the Spanish-speaking world. Bastos’s significant criticisms of Milei came a bit late and were limited mainly to foreign policy, whereas he agreed on economic issues with Milei’s propagandists like Juan Ramón Rallo. Basically, the entire Austro-libertarian movement in Spain has been in crisis because of Milei. Even organizations that had been radically anti-statist and more Austro-libertarian than the Juan de Mariana Institute, such as the Círculo Molinari, failed to rise to the occasion, generously promoting the propaganda of Bagus and Ferrero without ever making amends for this regrettable error.
