News Topic: Sovereign Debt

The revised draft PROMESA bill (available  here ) is now under debate in Congress. The bill appears to respond to some early criticisms, although its length and complexity obscures answers to some important questions. Under the circumstances, it seems ... Read full article

I again offer some initial thoughts on the revised draft bill , now subject to much debate in Congress: ... Read full article

The question is whether it is playing against the House of Representatives, and its heavy handed PROMESA draft bill, or its creditors. In any event, according to the Financial Times , Puerto Rico's legislature has passed a law giving its governor ... Read full article

Some quick thoughts on the "bankruptcy" part of the proposed bill: ... Read full article

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I did not realize that a US state had defaulted on its bonds, offering a historical comparative example of the difficulties facing Puerto Rico, its creditors, and mostly its citizens if the mess there is not subjected to an orderly, judicially supervised ... Read full article

So Noah Feldman has a column up on Bloomberg that suggests that section 903(1) of the Code should clearly apply to the Commonwealth. It's a sensible argument, if you read that section entirely in isolation and know nothing about the overall structure ... Read full article

The transcript can be found here .  Based on my initial read, it seems like the First Circuit might be reversed, which opens up all the issues Jacoby noted earlier (namely, will the statute pass Contracts Clause review – assuming the Clause even applies ... Read full article

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It has been a humbling torrent of creativity, and I am honored to chip in a tuppence at the eleventh hour. After an existential preface, I consider how one might use (or resist using) federal credit enhancement in the inevitable debt exchange. ... Read full article

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

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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

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