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Stiglitz comes to the rescue of Argentina and Greece on debt restructuring

Wednesday, June 17th 2015 - 05:46 UTC
Full article 29 comments

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has reiterated his support for a wider system of control on international sovereign debt restructuring, citing the examples of Argentina, Greece and Ukraine to back up his assertion that the area needs more supervision to protect those involved. Read full article

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  • golfcronie

    Put it this way, if you borrow money and are prepared and capable of paying the money back, why is there a need for restructuring. It is only banana countries that feel the need to restructure after they have stolen the mony . Argentina is a classic case. Thieves the lot of them. Would anyone on this board lend money and a few years down the line the borrower turns round and says I do not have your money here is 30% of it. Come on let's hear a argument for restructuring.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 07:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • zathras

    The BIG problem is that normal honest countries borrow money with the aim to pay it back.

    Others however plan to keep the money and then cry poverty.

    It's simple really.

    PAY YOUR DEBTS.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 07:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Vestige

    You first.

    All that unpaid ww1 US debt.

    Worth tens of billions. Pay your debts.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 08:09 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • it's me

    Greeks /Argentines have lots of cash. It's in the mattress. Neither of them play taxes.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 08:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ElaineB

    @3 You seem unable to distinguish between a debt being paid and a defaulted debt.

    @4 You make a good point. The political class have their snouts in the trough and have stolen the money from the Argentine people. Yet it is the average Argentine that has to suffer the consequences.

    Why was the Greek Prime Minister playing the victim card yesterday “They are trying to humiliate us”? Because the austerity measures cut off the money they have been living the high-life on.

    Look at Italy. 67% tax for the average citizen. Politicians only have to serve one term in office to get a fat monthly payment for life. It is complete corruption at political level.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 09:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Skip

    His Nobel Prize isn't for economics, that's for sure!

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 09:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Vestige

    5 - really Elaine, why not enlighten me.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 09:45 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    At least the Stiglitz in the film 'Inglorious Bastards' knew what he was doing unlike this argie idiot.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 11:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Chicureo

    #8 ChrisR

    Stiglitz had a subtle manner of communicating during his negotiations.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 11:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Conqueror

    @8. Stiglitz is American. That's a real American, not ex-pat Spaniards, Italians, Germans and the like.

    That said, he's a numpty. Not an ounce of sense in any of his 'work'. It has a tiny chance of explaining what happened AFTER the event. No good at all for determining what would happen in the future. Any of us can do that. Pick out the 'factors' you think might be appropriate and then search around for figures that work. A bit like the difference between the polls on the 2015 general election and the actual result. Then the frantic search for explanations about why the polls were so wrong.

    Pay no attention to Stiglitz. He's made a career out of 'explanations' that no-one else 'understands'. Notice how he frequently defends argieland. And how well argieland's economy is doing.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 12:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • DennisA

    Stiglitz is a Global Governance proponent, an insider at the UN and a prominent member of Socialist International.

    “UN Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System is chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, who is also simultaneously chairman of the SI's Commission on Global Financial Issues”

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 12:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • chronic

    Stiglitz?

    Stiglitz has PREVIOUSLY DISCREDITED HIMSELF in the most pressing economic matter of our time.

    Stiglitz cannot distance himself from his role in or responsibility for the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac collapse that nearly brought the world economic system to its knees!

    Five years prior to the Great Recession of 2008, Stiglitz advised the U.S. government IN WRITING that the risk of bankruptcy by these agencies was so small as to be negligible. Stiglitz has never been held accountable for this act.

    Stigltz is a fool.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 12:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Chicureo

    #10 Conqueror

    YankeeBoy and I were referring to a movie character with the same name, who was infamous for his brutal and sadistic ways of murdering Nazis. The economist you refer to is a complete socialist fool.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 01:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yankeeboy

    As far as I know the Sovereign Debt market is fluid.
    These horrible Commie Economists want the whole world living like the animals in Venezuela.
    No thanks.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 02:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • chronic

    I might add that Stiglitz is rumored to have body odor of the most profound and persistent type.

    It is said that this odor is subject neither to special soap nor patent deodorant and that no amount of cologne will ameliorate it.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 02:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yankeeboy

    I can't wait for the dominos to start falling in the EU.
    I've always considered it a failed experiment.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 02:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Chicureo

    #16 YB

    It was a perfect idea for Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to join in a single European currency with Germany and France. Norway was derided for not joining and they are all happy now. The other Scandinavians have mixed feelings.

    How are they going to let Greece get away with what they're doing...

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 03:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Vestige

    Elaine did a little googling it seems.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 03:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    @ 13 Chicureo

    Clue: it wasn't yankeeboy!

    See @ 8.

    :o)

    @ 10 Conqueror

    Yes, I am aware of his actual nationality, but he's a closet argie just like The Argie Rent boy of Uruguay: Almagro.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 05:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Chicureo

    #19 ChrisR

    My apologies. Have you been watching the Copa America?

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 06:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Jmackiej

    Even though there was
    no currency in place,
    oil revenue was about to collapse
    8 years of failed SNP economic progressive policies
    loss of 10 billion pounds in Barnett funding of public services
    introduction of borders with your biggest customer

    He thought it was economically sensible to become separetd from rest of Great Britain.

    The guy is an economic knucklehead.
    What did he do to get the Nobel prize , suck somebodies .....?

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 06:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ezekielman

    Forget about Joseph Stiglitz. Listen to Arturo Porzecanski, the distinguished economist, who says the Kirchner regime has given up trying to solve Argentina’s problems, it has decided to leave them to the next administration. The host of problems Porzecanski lists include energy, trade, exports and imports, government spending, the tax system, huge deficiencies in the national bank, massive challenges for Banco Nación, the largest commercial bank, problems with price controls, import controls, exchange controls, the list goes on and on. He calls Argentina a lawless rogue debtor. Says everything about the corrupt, bankrupt Kirchner regime.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 06:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    @ 20 Chicureo
    “Have you been watching the Copa America?”

    Apart from a passing interest with how Uruguay are doing: not too well with the argies beating them yesterday :o( since my father took me at the age of seven to see West Bromwich Albion play a match at their home ground “The Hawthorns”.

    I wasn't particularly interested in the match and it all ended for me when the drunk behind me pissed down my back and I kid you not. My father didn't even kick him in the nuts but a very nice man standing next to me turned around and put the drunk on the floor with a great uppercut and I remember what he said to my dad to this day “I should look after your lad a bit better mate”.

    The drunk didn't get up for a long while.

    My mother gave him what for when we got home and I was worn out because they wouldn't let me on the bus smelling of piss and we had to walk all the way.

    Happy days, NOT.

    So no, I don't bother.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 09:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Chicureo

    #23 ChrisR

    I almost never go to a stadium, but watching with company on television is fine.

    At my school we played rugby. Brutal on the field, but polite spectators. In my 12th year of studies, we played a rival in Buenos Aires, and not only did they kick our arses on the field, but they did brutally again that same evening.

    In those days, Argentina was prosperous and I envied them having those big beautiful Ford Falcons sedans to drive around in. Oh yes, the Porteña hockey players were to die for, but unfortunately they wouldn't even speak to us.

    Jun 17th, 2015 - 10:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • argfellow

    “What might a dozen of hungry sharks, maddened by bloody water, have in mind during a killer frenzy of their own...? Probably, nothing germane to the search for Truth”. (This was the lone swimmer´s last question and answer of his life).

    “Economics are simple, but not easy” Occasionally, the second part of this sentence could be wrong. Let us begin our search for Truth departing from some posters´quite simple statements, with the necessary corrections and addenda:
    @2 zathras : “The BIG problem is that normal honest countries borrow money with the aim to pay it back”. ( Please, where you read “COUNTRIES”, replace it by “GOVERNMENTS”. Necessary, because even the most “serious” countries, not to mention “rogue” ones, nurture corruption, crooks and traitors in their Administrations.). Now, an addendum on my part, totally forgotten by @ 2 and THE REAL G I S T of all this matter:

    ”The OTHER BIG PROBLEM is that normal honest (I refrain from ha, ha, ha) BANKS do not L E N D (to whoever it may be) a SINGLE dollar or euro BEYOND the repaying capacity of the borrower,(ask ordinary citizens of any country) when we deal with HONEST, AUTHENTIC LOANS, and not the fishy results of financial delinquency, consummated by the worst criminals at BOTH sides of the negotiation table between governments and Banks.
    At BOTH sides. Is it necesssary to remind that the Greek government contracted the “professional” services of a Group (I think it was Lehman Brothers) to “cook” its books' ciphers in order to enter the euro zone, many years ago? And that AFTER being caught red-handed, the EU authorized,later, its membership..?. AND HOW, HOW ON EARTH COULD TINY, VIRTUALLY RESOURCELESS, AND UNDER-POPULATED GREECE´S DEBT SURPASS THE € 300.000 MILLION MARK..? Can´t you really smell a rat...?

    @5 Elaine B.: “The political class...have stolen the money from the Argentine people. Yet, it is the average Argentine that has to suffer the consequences.”

    Really, my dear madam..?

    Jun 18th, 2015 - 12:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Skip

    Yeah I think the above post means he agrees that Argentina should pay its debts too!

    Jun 18th, 2015 - 06:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    @ 24 Chicureo

    My Argentine neighbour who comes over for the season used to play Field Hockey for Argentina and still does at the age of 48.

    His childhood friend also plays at a high level and came over tgw his wife at the end of the season to have a rest. Great people.

    My neighbour came over recently because he was playing in MVD and decided “to see his friends” as he said. Great family, all of them. What a pity there are so many arseholes in the government.

    Jun 18th, 2015 - 11:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Conqueror

    @11. Are you trying to say anything of relevance? Kirchner 'says' she's a lawyer. She just can't prove it! Putin reckons he's a politician. Politicians are supposed to talk. Not invade places and start wars. Kim Jong Un probably reckons he's a 'statesman'. All I see is a big kid, playing with destructive toys and throwing them out of his pram. I wonder if he realises that if he actually starts something and the U.S. responds his entire country could be annihilated in minutes. And there's no 'Reset' button to go back to Level 1.

    Such is Stiglitz. Years ago he came up with some 'expressions'. They aren't really formulae. Take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stiglitz
    You can find some of those expressions. Please explain the household utility in ordinary words. Can't? Just proved my point. What good is it? You can 'explain' things afterwards. You can't use the 'expression' to decide what you ought to do.

    A little further step for you. Why does Stiglitz defend argieland so often? Empiricly, it's obvious that the argie economy is a disaster, yet he defends it. Is that because Kirchner uses his 'expressions', and he daren't admit he's wrong?

    Oh, I forgot. His 'work' does have some good. It makes money for him!

    Jun 18th, 2015 - 02:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • argfellow

    I beg any poster to answer the third paragraph of my @25. In fact, I´d like to say “I defy any of you to answer it” , distastefully presumptuous as it may appear, because I think this tantamounts to defying common sense on your part.

    Jun 23rd, 2015 - 03:09 am - Link - Report abuse 0

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