Hard to believe it has been over a year since a creditor representative opposing H.R. 870 characterized chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy as "the Wild West " in Congressional testimony. ... Read full article
Watch here at 1pm ET to see former Treasury official Brad Setser, now senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, talk about Puerto Rico (along with Cate Long, Dick Ravitch, and Aaron Kuriloff). ... Read full article
One problem complicating any resolution of Puerto Rico's financial distress is that there are a multiplicity of issuers. There are separate claims on separate issuers, and it won't work to resolve just some of them, as they are all ultimately ... Read full article
Jacoby asks what can the Executive Branch do to help out Puerto Rico. The most practical thing it could do, right now, is to facilitate an exchange offer. Whether the Treasury itself can act as a mediator, or at least facilitate mediation by some ... Read full article
Now for a break from Puerto Rico. ... Read full article
The Puerto Rico situation feels a little like a McGuyver episode. How do we get out of a locked room with only a rubber band and a toothpick? Here are some half-baked thoughts, first on the nature of the problems and then some ideas for solutions. ... Read full article
Melissa's post asked what the executive branch could do to facilitate restructuring of Puerto Rico's debt. I'll get to that, but I first want to talk about Puerto Rico itself. At first glance, the Commonwealth seems to be in a uniquely ... Read full article
Recently, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the psychology of other people's indebtedness. I see parallels from this work and the way we think about Puerto Rican government debt. This thinking then tends to stand in the way of ... Read full article
OK, so I start from the premise that holdouts don't want to restructure debt but others do. Thus, the goal should be incentivize restructuring in a way that beats up on holdouts. Could the Feds say they'll offer financing (e.g., underwrite new ... Read full article
For the first time in nearly two decades of wrestling with section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code , I feel like I really understand the practical problems with the notion of "executoriness," as well as a constructive way forward. ... Read full article
The title pretty much sums it up, but this fastFT article gives a few details. The short of it: $4.65 billion to the group of holdouts led by NML (a roughly 25% haircut, reportedly), with the payment still requiring legislative approval in Argentina. ... Read full article
Some thoughts on the new rules for broker-dealer OLA cases, over at Dealb%k . ... Read full article
We know little about the financial lives and credit constraints of undocumented immigrants, partly because they are such a difficult to reach population. But Slips contributor Nathalie Martin gained access to this population in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ... Read full article
Supplementing Mark's post , here are the many magic words, in order of their appearance in the Order ... reliving the saga like it was yesterday. ... Read full article
"Put simply, President Macri's election changed everything." So sayeth Judge Griesa, according to Bloomberg , which reports that he will lift the injunction once Argentina repeals laws blocking payment on defaulted debt. ... Read full article
The ending of the pari passu saga was destined to be somewhat messy, if only because it would force the court to confront the fundamental illogic of the injunction. If we accept that each holder of bonds untendered in the 2005 and 2010 exchanges has a ... Read full article
Reports indicate that Russia has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine to collect on its $3 billion debt--not in arbitration , as early signs had indicated, but in the High Court in London. ... Read full article
