A critical look at the risk measurement tool that has repeatedly, and severely, hurt the financial worldThe credit crisis that erupted in 2007 is by no means the only shock to have shaken the financial markets throughout the years. But these market tribulations seem to wreak more havoc than ever...

What are the main credit-default-swaps takeaways from the 2014 forced default imposed on Argentina through the New York courts? In particular, was this at heart an empty creditor strategy, rather than a bond investor one, where the aim is entirely to try to have CDS trigger? If so, this could be...

Inspired by a proposal by Lee Buchheit and Mitu Gulati to try to help improve the debt tribulations currently afflicting Greece, and assisted by a serendipitous find (I was rather looking for ancient pari passu clauses in sovereign debt documentation; which I found), I analyze a historical case...

I found an 1838 legal document pertaining to debt obligations by a sovereign entity (the City of Edinburgh) that contains a pari passu clause. The clause wording itself is very basic ("rank pari passu") but both the texture of the case and the consequent related possible interpretation of pari...

Did the vulture funds that litigated against Argentina do so out of an honest desire to collect on the defaulted-on debt contracts they held, or was the legal path rather a mechanism to make some money even in the full knowledge that debt repayment would be out of the question? Was this a bond...

Is the pari passu clause found in sovereign debt contracts really about "pari passu"? Is the clause really a guardian of creditor equality? Should it be? Perhaps debtors and (non professional litigator holdouts) creditors would be much better served if pari passu was in fact a promise of...

Throughout the literature (both academic and professional) it is almost impossible to find detailed references, if at all, to the "mandatory law exception" version of the pari passu clause found in sovereign debt contracts. And yet, this clause is extremely prevalent across a vast number of...

The €215 billion lent to Greece by her Eurozone siblings are likely among the very cheapest funding ever enjoyed by a sovereign borrower. Not only would the effective net interest rate so far be negative, but actually more so than those faced by essentially all countries lucky enough to have...