If successful, the legislation would ease a financial stalemate that has seen the South American country default on $1.5bn of debt and subsequently launch legal action in The Hague against the US.
Err, no. If this was about $1.5 billion it would have been over in 15 seconds.
Argentine officials deny the country has defaulted because they deposited $539m for creditors in Bank of New York Mellon. District Judge Thomas Griesa, who has jurisdiction over the $1.5bn that Argentina owes bondholders, blocked that deposit in June, saying it violated his ruling that Argentina must first pay $1.5bn to settle its dispute with holdout investors first.
Those numbers are all correct.
The ISDA’s move will almost certainly trigger credit default swaps on Argentina’s debt worth $1bn.
The outstanding CDS might be worth that but that’s not what I think they mean. The actual debt that Argentina is in default upon is more like $100 billion.
It’s not just the arts graduates at The Guardian who don’t do numbers, eh?
Reminds me of Dr Evil holding the world to ransom for $1m
I did have some sympathy for Argentina. Blackmailed by vulture bond pimps, and then damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
But then I thought
It’s Argentina, FFS
Developing countries have been defaulting routinely for over a century (Argentina nearly as often as Greece).
Lock outs from bond markets after sovereign default are surprisingly short (2-3 years).
Risk premium on new issues from a defaulting country are surprisingly low and have been getting lower.
So all in all, F*** ’em.