Argentina Battles Vulture Funds

Timothy Spangler
Wed, 18 Jun 2014 13:58:25 -0700
Opinion

After the first week of the World Cup, the Argentina national team looks slightly ambivalent about its chances of winning the tournament, although the hopes of a nation still hang on superstar Lionel Messi. While the global sports media industry assembled in Brazil to analyze every match statistic in minute detail, further south, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner took to national television this week to announce that her country would not be fulfilling its legal obligation to pay back money that it had borrowed. U.S. courts had earlier issued a judgment compelling Argentina's payment.

Her televised speech made use of rhetorical flourishes and finely gauged rhetorical devices, but the facts are relatively clear-cut. Argentina borrowed large sums of money in U.S. dollars from international private lenders. There is no dispute over that much, at least. Unfortunately, the recent decade has been particularly tough for Kirchner's country, which, although blessed with natural resources and an educated populace, has managed to run its financial system and its economy into the ground.

As a result, President Kirchner decided that despite Argentina's legal obligations, she would pay back only a portion of what she had borrowed. Creditors should be happy with what they received. Unfortunately, a handful of U.S. hedge funds went into the market and bought some of the debt from lenders desperate to sell the loans for whatever they were worth and walk away from the Argentine meltdown. These funds then refused to take the offer made by Kirchner's government. Instead of accepting less than the face value of the debt that they hold, they are insisting on full repayment.
Updated: Thu Jun 19, 2014

After the first week of the World Cup, the Argentina national team looks slightly ambivalent about its chances of winning the tournament, although the hopes of a nation still hang on superstar Lionel Messi. While the global sports media industry assembled in Brazil to analyze every match statistic in minute detail, further south, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner took to national television this week to announce that her country would not be fulfilling its legal obligation to pay back money that it had borrowed. U.S. courts had earlier issued a judgment compelling Argentina's payment.

Her televised speech made use of rhetorical flourishes and finely gauged rhetorical devices, but the facts are relatively clear-cut. Argentina borrowed large sums of money in U.S. dollars from international private lenders. There is no dispute over that much, at least. Unfortunately, the recent decade has been particularly tough for Kirchner's country, which, although blessed with natural resources and an educated populace, has managed to run its financial system and its economy into the ground.

As a result, President Kirchner decided that despite Argentina's legal obligations, she would pay back only a portion of what she had borrowed. Creditors should be happy with what they received. Unfortunately, a handful of U.S. hedge funds went into the market and bought some of the debt from lenders desperate to sell the loans for whatever they were worth and walk away from the Argentine meltdown. These funds then refused to take the offer made by Kirchner's government. Instead of accepting less than the face value of the debt that they hold, they are insisting on full repayment.

Kirchner, however, made clear that the $1.3 billion that these so-called "vulture funds" hold will not be repaid, despite an inconvenient series of U.S. court cases that have painted her into a corner. Rather than validate her right to unilaterally renegotiate the terms of her borrowings ex post facto, American judges have said the funds are within their rights to hold out for full payment if they wish. While attempting to paint the U.S. funds as engaging in "extortion," Kirchner faces an imminent crisis, which could leave her country reeling from chaos and uncertainty for years to come.

Should Argentina eventually default on these outstanding loans, the country's reputation would be seriously undermined, and its economy would again be forced into a tailspin. When Argentina defaulted more than a decade ago, the economy cratered, destroying the savings of an entire generation. No one wants to see Argentina go through that again.

It is worth recalling that Argentina's history is so interwoven with debt and default that it is the only country in the world that has established its own museum in order to tell the full story behind its tradition of reckless borrowing — the Museum of Foreign Debt.

The difficult question, then, is: What Kirchner should do now? Unlike the creditors who have been willing to accept irregular interest payments in exchange for waiving significant portions of the outstanding principal amounts, the U.S. hedge funds are insisting on full repayment. Kirchner's political standing in her country has been weakened by the perception that during her period in power, she has been unable to contain inflation and protect the foreign currency reserves. Unless she can reach an accommodation with these hedge funds in the coming weeks, she will have little choice but to default on the terms of the loans.

Unfortunately, instead of addressing the fundamental challenges that her country faces, Kirchner seems to prefer playing the blame game. What she refers to as "vulture funds" are simply investors who committed no crime other than giving liquidity to the original lenders who wanted out. Common sense tells us that if it weren't for these secondary buyers making loans transferrable, the interest rates that lenders would charge would only increase if they knew they would be stuck with the loans indefinitely.

Although unpopular and painful in the short term, the tough choices Argentina should make would allow it to get its financial house in order. Instead of populism at home and cheap theatrics abroad — such as continuing to push claims against Britain for the Falkland Islands — Kirchner's government must put Argentina's economy on a firm footing through comprehensive reforms and modernization.

Lessons from the football pitch can be insightful. Clearly, Messi is the best player on the planet and has delivered handsomely for his club, FC Barcelona. But for Argentina, Messi has not been able to deliver World Cup glory like his predecessor Diego Maradona. No matter what potential Messi brings to the Argentine team, it can succeed only with a comprehensive plan for success methodically implemented. Name-calling and dismissing opponents out of hand will do little.

As Argentina progresses through the tournament, President Kirchner should pay close attention.