Default: The Landmark Court Battle over Argentina's $100 Billion Debt Restructuring

by Gregory Makoff, Lee C. Buchheit (Foreword by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647126735
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	09/02/2025
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.31(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
1. Argentina Defaults Then Fights with the IMF (December 2001–March 2003)
2. The Three-Way War: Argentina Battles with Creditors and the IMF over the Debt Deal (January 2003–April 2004)
3. Kirchner's Triumph: Argentina's 2005 Debt Restructuring (April 2004–June 2005)
4. Backstory: Elliot's War on Peru (1996–2000)
5. Raid on the Argentine Central Bank (December 2005–January 2007)
6. All Plaintiffs Big and Small (June 2005–December 2009)
7. Turning Point (2010)
8. Equal Treatment (October 2010–May 2014)
9. Argentina's Economic Stumbles and Elliott's Worldwide War (October 2010–June 2014)
10. It All Falls Apart (June 2014–November 2015)
11. The Settlement (December 2015–April 2016)
Epilogue
Conclusion

Acknowledgments
Appendix A: Featured Characters
Appendix B: Timeline of Events
Glossary
Note on Sources
Notes
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Anoop Singh

Default gives readers a rare view into the economic, legal, political, and social challenges of resolving a sovereign default. While focused on the holdout litigation against Argentina, Default also explains how the country's post-2001 difficulties were exacerbated by its highly politicized approach to debt and its creditors, as well as the lack of political consensus for addressing interrelated issues across the center and provinces.

Manuel Hinds

An extraordinary book—it combines technical details and human interactions to produce a thrilling narrative of the legal proceedings of a sovereign debt default case that changed the way such cases are treated.

Randal Quarles

Default is a fascinating and valuable examination of one of the most consequential events in international finance in our lifetimes—the Argentine debt default. Gregory Makoff's absorbing account of this episode is the most comprehensive available, especially in its detailed account of the intense human characters behind the complex litigation that resulted.

Annamaria Viterbo

While there is a substantial body of legal literature on Judge Thomas P. Griesa’s 2012 decision to impose the pari passu injunction on Argentina, Gregory Makoff’s Default is the first book that fully explains why he did it. Makoff achieves this by detailing all the events that, in a dramatic climax, led up to the decision, including Judge Griesa’s building anger at Argentina. It’s a surprising and fascinating story that should make it a fun read for legal scholars and general readers alike.

Sujeet Indap

The battle royale between Argentina and its creditors is much more than dry finance. Makoff brings alive the humans behind sovereign debt standoffs—their skill, frailties, and above all, their will to win at seemingly all costs.

Felix Salmon

Gregory Makoff's compelling case study of what happens when law and geopolitics collide has the complexity and richness of a great Russian novel. By transmuting a court case about pari passu into an engrossing page-turner, he has created a triumphant synthesis of the most venomous topic in international finance.

Layna Mosley

Makoff deftly traces the dynamics of the long-running struggle between the government of Argentina and its creditors. His meticulously researched narrative reveals political as well as legal struggles, involving the IMF and its member governments; retail investors in Germany, Italy, and Japan; holdout creditors in the United States; and Argentina’s political elites. Default reminds us why creating better mechanisms for addressing sovereign debt crises is both so important and so difficult to achieve. This book will be of interest to anyone—political scientists, economists, historians, and finance professionals, among others—interested in gaining a deeper understanding of sovereign debt dynamics.

Brad Setser

A spectacular account of sovereign debt's case of the century. Any investor in emerging markets debt should read this story, as should any government thinking of issuing—or restructuring—an international bond.

W. Mark C. Weidemaier

The fight between Argentina and its bondholders is one of the most significant episodes in the history of sovereign debt litigation, and Greg Makoff has written the definitive treatment.

Editorial Reviews

Featuring excerpts from numerous legal briefs, oral arguments, and judicial musings and decisions—as well as revealing interviews with key participants—the book should be required reading for students of international law, and of interest to anyone wanting to understand what the "Trial of the Century," as it was referred to in the press and among attorneys, was all about.

Americas Quarterly

Makoff's book is well researched, relying mostly on primary sources for citations and insider knowledge of IMF meetings and strategy....The book can thus be enjoyed by historians, economists and lawyers, as well as by casual readers, though few will be able to match Makoff's knowledge in all these fields.

Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

A scrupulously fair and comprehensive look at the trial of the century for sovereign debt.

Financial Times - Robin Wigglesworth

[Makoff] packs a lot of detail about the many overlapping legal cases, the players on all sides and the macro conditions into this "courtroom drama," which doubles as a guide about challenging debt restructuring.

Ziemba Insights

This book is a pleasant surprise.

CHOICE connect

Alternating between spellbinding narrative and dry legal analysis, he describes the thrust and parry between Argentine governments and litigious investors....

Foreign Affairs

It is highly readable, more relevant than ever, and absolutely required reading in these times of high sovereign debt, global tension and climate finance priorities, especially in less developed, indebted countries.

Central Banking

[A] superb account.

Wall Street Journal - David Skeel

In his magnificent new book, Default, Gregory Makoff tells the story of one of the most fascinating (and surreal, I would say) episodes in Argentina's history....The book is full of information, testimony from the main players, quotes from the international media, and statistical data obtained from various sources. All this makes it an important scholarly contribution to the literature on sovereign defaults. But there is more to it than this. There is also a fair amount of gossip, and the book is written in a lively style. It sometimes reads like a novel.... Makoff tells the story of the final negotiation, with all its drama and complexity, in a masterful way.

Literary Review

For students and professors, Makoff sticks the landing in authoring both a scholarly and practical history. Much ink has been spilt in academic circles on how sovereign debt markets work in theory. It took a practitioner like Makoff to explain how the world is rather than how it is supposed to be.

CFA Institute

Default is a powerful, exciting and instructive book that clearly and surprisingly amusingly presents the 'lengthiest, messiest sovereign debt restructuring in history' (283).

ReVista Harvard Review of Latin America

For students and professors, Makoff sticks the landing in authoring both a scholarly and practical history. Much ink has been spilt in academic circles on how sovereign debt markets work in theory. It took a practitioner like Makoff to explain how the world is rather than how it is supposed to be.

Enterprising Investor - Samy B. Muaddi

For students and professors, Makoff sticks the landing in authoring both a scholarly and practical history. Much ink has been spilt in academic circles on how sovereign debt markets work in theory. It took a practitioner like Makoff to explain how the world is rather than how it is supposed to be.

Enterprising Investor

For anyone with an interest in the subject, Makoff's book is a scrupulously fair and comprehensive look at the trial of the century for sovereign debt....

Financial Times