Briefing | The war on red tape

Many governments talk about cutting regulation but few manage to

Yet radical deregulation is often a big boost to growth

An illustration shows a carpenter, a surgeon, and a business person—representing the infrastructure, healthcare, and finance sectors—using a handsaw, scalpel, and scissors to cut through stubborn red tape..
Illustration: Kyle Ellingson
|Athens and San Francisco

He brandished a chainsaw at campaign rallies, to signify his eagerness to clear-cut the thickets of bureaucracy and regulation impeding the economy’s progress. Perhaps more strikingly, he has actually lived up to this act. In November Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, told The Economist he had already taken 800 steps to reduce red tape and planned 3,200 more such “structural reforms”.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Rule-breakers”

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