Skip to footer

Argentina's last stand in battle against bondholders

A US judge ruled that Argentina must pay all bond holders from its decade-old debt restructuring, including 'vulture funds' that refused to accept previous restructured deals.

|
Marcos Brindicci/REUTERS
Argentine Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino speaks during a news conference in Buenos Aires, November 22, 2012.

• A version of this post ran on the author's blog, bloggingsbyboz.com. The views expressed are the author's own.

US District Court Judge Thomas Griesa announced a big ruling on Argentina's debt [Nov. 21], one that could place the country in technical default by mid-December. (FT, Reuters, Clarin)
 
The judge ruled that Argentina must make payments to all bond holders, including those "vulture funds" that refused to accept previous restructuring deals. Previously, Argentina had only paid those funds that restructured their debt. Two interesting points out of the ruling:

RELATED: Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz!

1) The judge said he would not grant a stay because Argentine President Kirchner has made public statements (different from Argentina's official legal position) that the country would never comply with a US judicial order to pay the holdout bondholders. Making the judge angry by announcing the country's defiance ahead of time may backfire on Kirchner.
 
2) The judge said US third parties working with Argentina must comply with the ruling, placing BNY Mellon and several other institutions in a very tough spot. If Argentina tries to make its 15 December payments on just the restructured debt, it will amount to a technical default and/or the US third parties will find themselves legally liable for not complying with the judicial ruling.

– James Bosworth is a freelance writer and consultant who runs Bloggings by Boz.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Argentina's last stand in battle against bondholders
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2012/1126/Argentina-s-last-stand-in-battle-against-bondholders
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe