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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Update on Argentina Debt Default - It's Still Pretty Messy

Bloomberg runs this update on the ongoing drama related to the refusal of Argentina to obey a decision from a US Judge on its bonds. The Judge rules the country in contempt of court.


This is the case being closely watched by many global financial institutions since it may set precedent for future sovereign debt default situations. This one is still a big mess and no signs of it being resolved any time soon.

Argentina is trying to basically bypass the US court ruling while the judge in the case is blocking the ability of Argentina to pay its bondholders. 

Some global institutions are concerned that this case will make it harder to quickly resolve any sovereign debt crisis that might emerge in the future as bondholders may not be as quick to accept a big loss. The case is also not helping the image of the US in the eyes of some other nations who feel the US is overstepping its bounds to impose US law on other countries (this same kind of thing happened recently in Europe).

Keep all that in mind as the battle for IMF reforms continues to play out. There is a growing feeling that the US is using its position in the world (and its ability to create endless reserve currency US dollars) to coerce other nations into doing whatever it wants. Russia just made a speech at the UN aimed directly at the US in this regard. As the world appears to drift further apart, all of this ill will is not likely to help out global GDP very much.

So even though this case only involves a portion of old debt from Argentina, there are a lot of undercurrents being watched to see how it ends up.

Update 10-1-14: This story takes a strange twist. President of Argentina suggests the US may be trying to have her assassinated.

Update 10-2-14: And now the Head of the Central Bank of Argentina resigns.

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