MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Jubilee Debt Campaign supports Argentina against “vulture funds” quick bucks
Tim Jones, Policy Officer Jubilee Debt Campaign The following letter under the heading of “Urgent need for legislation on Argentina debt” was published in the Financial Times and refers to the ongoing battle with the holdout hedge funds.The piece is signed by Tim Jones, Policy Officer, Jubilee Debt Campaign, London, N1, UK.
Sir, Following the US Supreme Court’s decision not to hear Argentina’s appeal in the vulture funds case, your editorial is right that “Congress could modify the law to deal more sensibly with US law-governed sovereign debt” (“Ending Argentina's lengthy bond battle”, June 18). It is interesting to consider what such legal changes could be.
In 2010, the UK parliament passed a law which said any company suing one of the 40 heavily indebted poor countries in UK courts for debt payments could only get as much as if they had taken part in HIPC debt relief. The same could be done in the case of Argentina, allowing holdouts only to get as much as the 93 per cent of creditors who agreed to the 2005 and 2010 restructurings. Similar legislation was passed in Greece following its 2012 restructuring to get around deficiencies in collective action clauses.
Such legislation is urgently needed. As is pointed out elsewhere (“Debt ruling leaves Argentina in a quandary”, June 18), any deal with the vulture funds will open up Argentina to even larger claims from restructured bondholders. NML Capital and Aurelius Capital are free riding on the back of the vast majority who restructured the debt, in pursuit of huge profits. If they succeed it will be a defeat for fairness and the ability to deal with debt crises across the world.
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Read all commentsWell, Mr Tim Jones, you wouldn't be saying that if Argentina owed you money, would you?
Jun 23rd, 2014 - 05:44 am 0Argentina left itself wide open to these 'vulture funds' as you call them. If they had dealt fairly and honestly with their creditors after their last default then none of them would've felt compelled to sell their debt onto NML and other capital funds, would they?
Instead these people were offered less than a quarter of what their bonds were worth, no room to negotiate, and most of them were too poor to take Argentina to court. So these people opted for a slightly better deal from NML.
Revenge is a dish best served cold, and Argentina's former creditors are now having the last laugh.
Don't mistake Argentina with a poor country in Africa, Mr Jones. Argentina has more than enough natural resources to have paid their debt off 100 times over. It's just that Argentina is too corrupt, too incompetent and the Argentine government cannot govern itself, let alone the nation.
So this is what Argentina needs, it needs to suffer so that the people will finally realise that allowing successive governments to use Argentina's treasury as a piggy bank is a big no-no.
And if they don't, then they deserve everything that they get. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Argentina is NOT the victim in all of this. It is the people who believed them, and invested money in Argentina that are the true victims.
Karma has a funny way of coming around and biting people, and countries on the arse. Argentina is getting a big dose of karma now, isn't it?
Argentina is NOT dealing in good faith and deserves everything it gets.
Jun 23rd, 2014 - 06:04 am 0What I can't understand is after nearly 200 years Argentina is still being classified as an “emerging nation”
Jun 23rd, 2014 - 06:36 am 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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