I have never shied away from my negative opinions of Argentina from the president down to the average man on the streets of Buenos Aires. Face it, the women are beautiful, most have “daddy issues” but that’s another matter. I’m sure Argentina’s president Cristina Kirchner was a hottie in her own right a few years back, and still turns heads as far as heads of states go to this day. Unfortunately, all of that is lost when she speaks.
Argentina’s case of unpaid bonds
We’ve covered Argentina’s stubbornness regarding the last of the unpaid bond holders here, and I’ve commented at length on the country’s and its citizens’ unwillingness to accept blame for anything without first looking for a scapegoat here. I’ve also tried to explain the odd about face that the IMF did regarding its support for Argentina in its bond fight with, well, Elliott Management.
Now I will have to bash Kirchner a little bit.
Following another ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that demanded Argentina settle its outstanding debt from 2001, primarily held by Elliott Management, the country asserted that it would never pay. They even went so far as to say that if the U.S. Supreme Court, whom Argentina appealed to recently to hear its case, found in favor of Elliott Management that they wouldn’t honor the ruling.
Frustrating people these. “Please hear our case. Never mind that we won’t listen to your ruling if we don’t like it.” Wow.
Cristina Kirchner rejected Second Circuit’s branding
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner rejected the Second Circuit’s branding of her country as a “uniquely recalcitrant debtor,” calling her government “a serial payer but not a serial debtor.” She called Friday’s ruling “a bit unfair to Argentina.”
What would have been truly unfair to Argentina, which doesn’t allow for consecutive terms for its presidents, is if former president Nestor Kirchner and her plan to alternate terms for twenty years came to fruition. Mr. Kirchner died in 2011.
“The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court will affect not only Argentina but the entire financial world,” she said.
And at the acme of hypocrisy is the fact that Argentina doesn’t see it. They refuse to pay regardless of the courts’ decisions yet Kirchner allowed herself this nonsense.
“This shows our profound commitment to paying our debt to bondholders,” Kirchner said during a televised address.
