Default

The Landmark Court Battle over Argentina's $100 Billion Debt Restructuring

Gregory Makoff

• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781647123970, 9781647123970
• eBook ISBN: 9781647123987
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Conditions
• Index: Economics

The dramatic inside story of the most important case in the history of sovereign debt law

Argentina's 2001 default on $100 billion in bonds and the messy litigation that followed has had an outsized impact on sovereign debt markets, sovereign debt law, and the International Monetary Fund's policies. This is the sovereign debt case study that scholars, legal practitioners, investors, and overindebted countries must understand—and Default provides the first comprehensive account of these events.

Deeply researched and meticulously documented, Default follows Argentina as it manages its tumultuous relationship with external creditors, from its December 2001 default through an intense fight over the role of the IMF in Argentina's 2005 debt restructuring and finally the April 2016 settlement of most legal claims. Pairing unbiased exposition with masterful character portraits and actual dialogue from the public record, Gregory Makoff brings his readers into the rooms—including board rooms, negotiating rooms, and courtrooms in New York, Washington, and around the world—as the events unfold.

By revealing the obscure inner workings of sovereign debt restructuring, Makoff gives us a cautionary tale for the ages that lays bare the institutional, political, and legal pressures that come into play when a country cannot repay its debts. Besides making an important contribution to the literature, Default has stimulated interest from a wide range of readers around the globe, including academics, practicing legal experts, debt investors, government officials, financial reporters, bankers, staff members of international financial institutions, and general readers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. Argentina Defaults and Then Fights with the IMF (December 2001–March 2003)
• 2. The Three-Way War: Argentina Battles with Creditors and the IMF over the Debt Deal (January 2003–April 2004)
• 3. Kirchner’s Triumph: Argentina’s 2005 Debt Restructuring (April 2004–June 2005)
• 4. Backstory: Elliott’s War on Peru (1996–2000)
• 5. Raid on the Argentine Central Bank (December 2005–January 2007)
• 6. All Plaintiffs Big and Small (June 2005–December 2009)
• 7. Turning Point (2010)
• 8. Equal Treatment (October 2010–May 2014)
• 9. Argentina’s Economic Stumbles and Elliott’s Worldwide War (October 2010–June 2014)
• 10. It All Falls Apart (June 2014–November 2015)
• 11. The Settlement (December 2015–April 2016)
• Epilogue
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Featured Characters
• Appendix B: Timeline of Events
• Glossary
• Note on Sources
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author