Sovereign Debt

The "Necessity" Defense in Sovereign Debt Cases

01/29/20

My international debt class this week discussed the US Supreme Court’s gold clause decisions from 1935; and, in particular, US v. Perry. This is one of my favorite topics, in part because the events that occurred are so surprising to most students (as they were to me).

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Argentina’s Hundred-Year Bond and its Make-Whole Premium: A Spanner in the Works?

01/26/20

Argentina is on the brink of attempting a restructuring of its sovereign debt.  And, of course, that has attracted the birds of prey.  An article in Bloomberg a couple of days ago (here) reported that potential holdout creditors had hired expert lawyers to examine the fine print in Argentine contracts in the hope of finding a vehicle to support their litigation strategies.

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Buybacks as a Sovereign Debt Restructuring Strategy: Why the Disfavor?

01/19/20

The ideas in this post are drawn from work with Stephen Choi.  Errors are mine.

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Hinrichsen on Iraq’s Debt Restructuring

12/21/19

Iraq’s debt restructuring a decade and a half ago was one of the few things that went right with the US incursion into that country in 2003.  Thanks to a combination of an expensive war with Iran, mismanagement and corruption on the part of Saddam and his henchmen, and the debilitating effect of international sanctions on the economy, Iraq in 2003 found itself with one of the largest sovereign defaulted debt stocks in history.  Worse, thanks to the sanctions regime, much of the unpaid debt had, by the time of Saddam’s removal, matured into judgement

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Yadav on Dodgy Debt Buybacks

12/20/19

I’ve long been fascinated by debt buybacks by issuers, in large part because they seemed to occupy a loophole in the securities disclosure laws.  A company could do a buyback of bonds and, because bondholders are not owed fiduciary duties by the company, there was no requirement for disclosure.

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Sovereign Gold Bonds in 2019: Really?

12/06/19

Mark Weidemaier and Mitu Gulati

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Dysfunctional Sovereign Debt Politics in Lebanon, Italy, and [Your Country Here]

12/03/19

Mark Weidemaier & Mitu Gulati

Debt, like the full moon, is known to make politicians act strangely. There have been some good examples over the last few weeks, most recently in Lebanon and Italy.

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