Is there anything more wonderful than voters saying 'no' to socialism a second time?

That's the story in Argentina, where midterm elections were held over the weekend, with splendid results.

According to Bloomberg:

President Javier Milei’s party won Argentina’s midterm vote Sunday, a result that will give the libertarian leader a strong foothold in Congress to continue pursuing aggressive free-market policies that have won praise and a financial lifeline from Donald Trump. 

Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, received 41% of votes nationwide with 92% of ballots counted, according to data published by Interior Minister Guillermo Francos on Sunday. It led in most of Argentina’s provinces and finished well ahead of the main opposition party, which in all of its iterations garnered about 32% of the vote, local newspaper Clarin said.

That was greater than expected, and a resounding vote for libertarian free-market policies, which have indeed made life better than the Peronist socialism that has suffocated Argentina for a century.

It's an intriguing result because the Argentinian voters had kept voting for this socialism for so long it had been a default position.

Something changed, though, in the past two years of President Milei's determined administration. Somethig broke the default. It's not precisely known what it is, but we need to know it as Trump continues with his reforms.

Something happened there that hasn't happened in New York (which stands poised to elect a truly bad socialist even after the disastrous administration of Bill de Blasio).

Argentina's voters had had enough, and not only had enough, but understood the true cause for what was ruining their country.

Perhaps it took time the economic wringer, and realized they had once been a great nation richer than nearly all others on earth, but today were third-world poor, with correesponding influence on the global stage.

Whatever it was, they did understand the problem, and opted to stay the course with President Nilei, even with considerable austerity and budget cuts as Milei slashed the size of government, paid down the debt, and secured a swap-buying agreement with the U.S. so that the country could stay afloat.

Normally, that kind of pain makes many voters change course and return to the bad old system that got them in the pickle in the first place.

But the Argentinian voters were not for turning. In this midterm, they managed to sweep out many greedy socialists and extend Milei's majority in the legislature, opening the door for his capacity to make even more powerful reforms.

And not surprisingly, the markets went wild at this vote of confidence in free markets.

According to a second story by Bloomberg:

• Markets are rallying on the results. Sovereign bonds due in 2035 soared more than 13 cents to a record Monday morning; the peso opened more than 10% stronger; and the local benchmark stock index surged 20%.

That is amazing behavior in voters and one that we can only hope will be seen here in our midterms, too.

The best one can conclude here is that when voters sense that reforms are genuine, as Milei's are, they stay the course, vowing to ride the reforms until prosperity. That's a faith that moves markets.

Image: Screen shot from X video