Argentina’s macro data finally gave Javier Milei some breathing room in May: economic activity beat expectations, manufacturing and construction rebounded, inflation slowed, and major RIGI investment announcements kept coming. But the country underneath the numbers still looked tense.

In Episode 3 of The Argentina Brief, Francisco Aldaya and Daniel Politi discuss Argentina’s hantavirus scare, cuts to disease-prevention programmes, the latest university marches, and warnings from government officials that austerity is reaching its limits. They also dig into the government’s strongest social talking point, falling poverty, and ask whether the headline number may be overstating the recovery, especially with disposable income still 12 percent below pre-Milei levels.

They also unpack the seemingly never-ending scandal involving Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni, the factional warfare inside Milei’s camp that spilled into public view through an anonymous Twitter account, and whether investors care when political chaos starts to look like a governability problem. Peter Thiel then enters the conversation, with Palantir, Argentina’s proposed “social digital twin,” data-security concerns, and a very odd Buenos Aires run that includes a chess tournament in Almagro and fake AI images of him eating milanesa. And because fake milanesa is no substitute for the real thing, Allie Lazar joins to discuss where Thiel, or anyone else, should actually go for the city’s best milanesas.

Recorded on May 26, 2026.