Sovereign Debt

You've sunk my battleship! And seized my carrier...

11/11/12

There is a widely-held view that sovereign bonds don't contain the optimal terms but are slow to incorporate better ones. Right or wrong, that view has prompted many government-sponsored initiatives to reform bond contracts, such as the current plan to mandate the use of standardized collective action clauses in all euro area government bonds.

[more]

"A rifle doesn't scare me. But we expected the Argentines to act professionally..."

11/11/12

In my last post, I said that the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had interpreted the pari passu clause in Argentina's bonds as a promise to forego a century's worth of restructuring practices. The district judge still needs to clarify the injunction enforcing that promise.

[more]

Pesky holdouts, old-timey edition. (Or, more on why Argentina matters.)

11/08/12

"[T]he principal beneficiaries of the litigation were an unscrupulous body of commercial pirates, who had purchased ... bonds at a mere nominal price..."

[more]

Argentina's (not so) unusual pari passu clause

11/04/12

Thanks very much to Credit Slips for inviting me to guest blog. I know that many readers of this blog have been following the pari passu saga unfolding in the Second Circuit.

[more]

Argentina Lost! Elliott Won! Pari Passu Rules! (... or Why I Love Being a Law Professor ...)

10/26/12

The pointy-head caucus can exhale -- the Second Circuit ruled on the pari passu drama, and it did not go as I had expected.

[more]

Shipping News of the World

10/12/12

Whaddayaknow -- the Ghanaian commercial court upheld the detention of the Argentine tall ship at the request of the defaulted bond holders.

[more]

Belize Update

09/20/12

For those of you who read my Dealbook column last month, Alphaville provides an update.

[more]

EU Update (And FI Reality)

09/02/12

If you've been tuning out the Euro situation, despite Gelpern's periodic updates, today's Times magazine has a since summary of where things stand.

I also think the end of this bit nicely captures the extant cynicism regarding financial institutions.

[more]