Sovereign Debt

Sovereign Restructuring after NML v. Argentina: CACs Don't Make Pari Passu Go Away

05/03/12

A remarkable number of people are buying the creditors' argument that widespread introduction of collective action clauses (CACs) in sovereign bonds makes the debate about the pari passu clause in the Second Circuit irrelevant to the broader regime for sovereign debt rest

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Pari Passu: So Passe! (Extractive Edition)

04/27/12

Felix Salmon stays with the Argentina pari passu saga, about which I wrote here. The holdout creditors have now filed their briefs (Felix has the links), and are doubling down on the text.

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Revival on the Head of a Pin: Do U Pari Passu?

04/06/12

Argentina and its most intransigent creditors are duking it out again (or still) in the Second Circuit, reviving the crazy battle over the meaning and import of the pari passu (equal treatment) clause in sovereign debt contracts. For the small but committed contingent of pari passu pointy heads, this is WorldCupOlympicMarchMadnessSuperBowl. For everyone else, this bears watching because an obscure turn in the Argentina story could open the door to enforcement against sovereign debtors in general.

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Pari Passu Party (on behalf of Anna Gelpern)

04/06/12

This is Adam Levitin posting for Anna Gelpern.  Only the awful illiterative post title is mine.  Here's Anna:

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At Last, A Credible Threat of Default: Too Little-Too Late Eupdate?

03/06/12

At long last, Greece is starting to resemble a normal restructuring--you know, the kind where the debtor just might not pay if it does not get the relief it is asking for. Everyone else has done it this way, including the proverbial opposites, mean Argentina and nice Uruguay--but not Greece.

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Thank You to Philomila Tsoukala

02/26/12

Credit Slips has been fortunate to have my Georgetown colleague Philomila Tsoukala as a guest blogger the past couple weeks. The mainstream US media press coverage of the Greek financial crisis has focused on the dynamic between the Greek government and the EU, but as Philo's posts remind us, there is a complex internal dynamic in Greece, with the Greek population actually having to live with the deals its government keeps making.  Thank you Philo!

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The Disorderly Default in Your Closet Eupdate

02/21/12

Another day, another Greek deal to end them all (more on that soon).

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It's not just the economy stupid!

02/17/12

“Greeks are protesting new austerity measures” is a common headline these days. It definitely captures some of what protesting Greeks are doing, but certainly leaves a whole lot out of the picture. Many Greeks are protesting not only the deterioration of their standard of living, but equally importantly, what they experience as a political disenfranchisement that has been orchestrated by the government, with the collaboration of the European heads of state.

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Greek family and welfare provision

02/14/12

I have argued previously (here) that the EU/IMF/ECB insistence on “flexibilizing” labor law in Greece overlooked the basic structure of the Greek private market, which consists overwhelmingly of small, family owned and operated businesses, with ultra –flexible wage arrangements (a wife’s labor, especially, is often unremunerated).

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Austerity Hits Greece

02/13/12

The latest EU bailout installment for Greece requires tough austerity measures. Among the most devastating is the prohibition on the use of Corinthian and Ionic columns. Henceforth, only Doric columns may be utilized. This measure was a compromise among creditor consitiuencies, as Germany had previously demanded that the Greeks be limited to Bauhaus design.

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