The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact: Email:,coord(at)jubileeusa.org

Standard and Poor's Declares Argentina Default

WASHINGTON

The ratings agency Standard and Poor's declared Argentina to be in default today after the country failed to reach a negotiated settlement with hold-out creditors. It is Argentina's second default in thirteen years.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious debt relief group, Jubilee USA Network, releases the following statement:

"It's unfortunate that it came to this. Argentina decided it was better to default than to settle. Argentina will likely find alternatives now to pay the restructured bond holders.

"Because of the precedent this case sets there are a lot of losers and few winners. Legitimate investors and poor people lose the most. Argentina never would have defaulted and hold-outs would have been forced to sit at the table if we had an international bankruptcy process in place. In the coming months we'll continue to see the G20 to the IMF try to stop this extreme predatory behavior

These predatory actors are only able to operate because our financial system is too much like the wild west."

Read a history and timeline of the case.

Read Jubilee's USA's filing urging the Supreme Court to take case.

Jubilee USA Network is an interfaith, non-profit alliance of religious, development and advocacy organizations. We are 75 U.S. institutions and more than 750 faith groups working across the United States and around the globe. We address the structural causes of poverty and inequality in our communities and countries around the world.

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