The dramatic inside story of the most important case in the history of sovereign debt law

Argentina’s 2001 default on $100 billion in bonds and the messy litigation that followed has had an outsized impact on sovereign debt markets, sovereign debt law, and the International Monetary Fund’s policies. This is the sovereign debt case study that scholars, legal practitioners, investors, and overindebted countries must understand—and Default provides the first comprehensive account of these events.

Deeply researched and meticulously documented, Default follows Argentina as it manages its tumultuous relationship with external creditors, from its December 2001 default through an intense fight over the role of the IMF in Argentina’s 2005 debt restructuring and finally the April 2016 settlement of most legal claims. Pairing unbiased exposition with masterful character portraits and actual dialogue from the public record, Gregory Makoff brings his readers into the rooms—including board rooms, negotiating rooms, and courtrooms in New York, Washington, and around the world—as the events unfold.

By revealing the obscure inner workings of sovereign debt restructuring, Makoff gives us a cautionary tale for the ages that lays bare the institutional, political, and legal pressures that come into play when a country cannot repay its debts. Besides making an important contribution to the literature, Default has stimulated interest from a wide range of readers around the globe, including academics, practicing legal experts, debt investors, government officials, financial reporters, bankers, staff members of international financial institutions, and general readers.

Author Biography

Gregory Makoff, PhD, is a nonresident senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and a former senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, he worked as a banker specializing in sovereign debt management and served as a senior policy adviser at the US Department of the Treasury.

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