JEFF JACOBY: In Argentina, Milei’s exhilarating chainsaw revolution is underway.

As he campaigned for president of Argentina last year, Javier Milei brandished a chainsaw as a symbol of the ferocity with which he intended to slash the country’s massive public sector. Again and again he told voters that Argentina’s economy had been wrecked by corrupt and irresponsible left-wing governments and warned that there was no easy fix to the chaos caused by decades of unaffordable state spending financed by endlessly borrowing and printing money. A trained economist, Milei outlined what he called his “Chainsaw Plan” — a drastic reduction in the cost and scope of the government and a frontal assault on the power of Argentina’s entrenched political class.

The self-described “anarcho-capitalist” appalled his critics, who smeared him as a “wannabe fascist” and a “mini-Trump” whose simplistic solutions would wreak “devastation” on Argentina. But voters weren’t deterred. They elected Milei in a landslide, giving him the chance to show what he could accomplish with a chainsaw and public support but very little parliamentary or institutional backing.

You’ve got to watch out for those wannabe fascists who [checking notes] want to dramatically shrink government and leave voters alone!