ITS steakhouses bustle, its shopping malls teem. There are few signs that, on July 30th, Argentina could default for the eighth time. Yet the chances are rising.The countdown started on June 16th, when the Supreme Court of the United States announced that it would not get involved in Argentina’s battle with NML Capital, a hedge fund that picked up cheap debt after Argentina’s 2001 default and has since litigated for payment of full principal plus interest. The decision left intact a ruling by Thomas Griesa, a New York district-court judge, which banned Argentina from paying the creditors who in 2005 and 2010 swapped 93% of defaulted debt for performing securities, if the country did not also pay NML what it wants.Argentina was left with only thorny choices: pay NML the $1.3 billion plus interest awarded by Judge Griesa; negotiate a settlement with the hedge fund; or stop paying the exchange bondholders. A payment due on June 30th to those exchange bondholders was missed. The grace period expires on July 30th, at which point Argentina will again be in default.Full payment would be hard to swallow. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has always opposed...
from The Economist: The Americas http://ift.tt/1Abt5dP
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