By Evan Abrams
The global financial crisis of 2007-08 may have begun in the
private sector, but it quickly spread to the public sector as well, with
countries like Greece, Portugal, and Italy making headlines for months. The
crisis exposed these countries’ inability to finance their debt and left the
specter of a Eurozone breakup battering financial markets across the world.
Argentina has also made news
of late due to its long running legal battle with so called “vulture funds.”
The situation with Argentina is not that they are unable to pay their debts,
but that they are unwilling to reward holdouts from an earlier restructuring
after its 2001 default. These holdouts claim they are simply trying to recover
what they are contractually owed. However, developing countries view such
recalcitrant creditors as taking advantage of economic crises and undermining nations’
recovery efforts in the wake of financial turmoil.
