Should financing human rights’ violators help fund US pensions?

Sir, I refer to Colby Smith’s “Year began with ‘hardcore fear of missing out’ but now holders of Caracas debt have lost hope” December 21

I wonder how one can discuss the chances of creditors collecting on Venezuela’s debts, ignoring that their funds have all gone to finance a notoriously corrupt and inept government that has and is evidently committing crimes against human rights?

Odious debts is mostly the direct result of odious credits…

With respect to the sanctions of Venezuela by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, an international bondholder is quoted. “These sanctions were just a disaster, and all this has done is damage holders of the bonds, many of which manage money for US pensioners.” Really in these days when financing of good social purposes is promoted, like to finance the sustainable development goals, SDG’s, should financing human rights’ violators really help fund pensions?

Frankly, “Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, BlackRock and Pimco” as well as Goldman Sachs should all be shamed; and tell us the name of that “one bondholder group holding $8bn of Venezuela’s debt”, because such exposures do not happen without very close and incestuous contacts with the government.

@PerKurowski

High interest rates on sovereign bonds are often just vulgar kickbacks offered by corrupt regimes.

Sir, Jim Sanders correctly points out “Where the money from sovereign bonds goes within developing country governments is rarely, if ever, the subject of reporting in the financial press. Nor does there appear to be a regulatory regime in place to monitor how money raised from bond issues is spent.” “Emerging market bonds are a risky business” March 19.

Of course not, way to often lenders, attracted by profit opportunities, quite on purpose turn a blind eye on that, much preferring the bliss of ignorance. 

Just as an example in May 2017, Goldman Sachs handed over about US$800 million to the notoriously corrupt, criminal and human rights violating government of Venezuela, in order to obtain $2.8billion Venezuelan bonds paying a 12.75% interest rate, which if repaid would provide GS with about a 42% yearly return, 2.000% more than what US pays.

It is clear that when it comes to our sovereigns taking on debt, that perhaps our children will have to repay, we citizens much more than credit ratings need ethic ratings; and a clear definition of what should be considered as odious credits, and the consequences for any credit that ends up qualified as such.

Personally I consider a level of sovereign debt that allows for contracting it in emergencies at reasonable rates, as a strategic asset, which no one should take away from future generations, without overwhelming reasons.

@PerKurowski

Venezuela poses a unique opportunity, for all citizens of the world, to clearly define what should be considered as odious credits, and how these should be treated.

Sir, Colby Smith and Robin Wigglesworth quote a holder of Venezuelan debt with: “The ultimate objective is to reach a point where [Venezuela] regains market access at market-determined terms without the risk of renewed default”,“Venezuela debt fight pits veterans against hot-headed newcomers” March 13.

It is absolutely clear Venezuela needs much financing to reconstruct its entire run down basic infrastructure but, as a citizen, having seen how much public indebtedness goes hand in hand with corruption and waste, and how it so often makes it harder for the private sector to finance its needs, I would not mind Venezuela not reaching that “ultimate objective” for a long-long time, especially not as long as the government already receives directly all oil revenues.

Our Constitution clearly establishes that all “Mineral and hydrocarbon deposits of any nature that exist within the territory of the nation… are of public domain, and therefore inalienable and not transferable” and yet 99% of the debt it contracts is implicitly based on its creditors having access to the revenues produced by extracting Venezuela’s non-renewable natural resources, mainly oil. 

So now, the least our legitimate creditors could do, is to help us extract oil; and to that effect the following is a message I have been tweeting for about two years: “For Venezuelans to be able to eat quickly, starts by quickly handing over PDVSA’s junk to its and Venezuela’s creditors, so that they quickly put it to work, to see if they are able to quickly collect something, so to pay us citizens, not bandits, some oil royalties quickly”

But, that said, what is most important is to classify all Venezuela’s debts. Many of these were not duly approved; others had a large ingredient of corruption and lack of transparency and so all these must be scrutinized in order to establish their legitimacy.

For example, when Goldman Sachs in May 2017 handed over $800 million cash in exchange for $2.8billion Venezuelan bonds paying a 12.75% interest rate, to a notoriously corrupt and inept regime that was committing crimes against humanity. Especially since Lloyd Blankfein cannot argue an “I did not know”, that to me is as odious as odious credits come.

Sir, it behooves all citizens of the world to use this opportunity to set up an adequate defense against governments anywhere, mortgaging their future with odious credit/odious debts.

That also includes stopping statist regulators from distorting with a 0% risk weight the allocation of bank credit in favor of the sovereign, against the 100% risk weighted citizens. 

@PerKurowski

When restructuring Venezuela’s debt, start with identifying all odious credits.

Colby Smith writes “analysts reckon Venezuela has some $140bn debt outstanding with over $65bn owed to bondholders and another roughly $40bn due to China and Russia.” “Venezuela’s welter of debt will mean a messy restructuring” February 2.

The key word here is “reckon”… because the indebtedness of Venezuela has clearly not followed a transparent process. Frequently there are references to odious debts, but very rarely or never to the fact that these most often arise from odious credits that should never have been awarded. That “odiousness” extends from a shameful lack of due diligence to outright participation in corrupt acts.

All citizens in the world would greatly benefit from having a clear definition of what should be considered odious credits, and of its consequences. Without it, any Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism (SDRM) similar to the one proposed 2002 at the IMF by Anne O. Kruger, would be found wanting.

PS. Because Robin Wigglesworth has touched on this theme I am copying him. 

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/05/06/2161045/donald-trump-and-the-sovereign-debt-restructuring-mechanism-revisited/

https://www.ft.com/content/fa6850cc-96c3-11e7-b83c-9588e51488a0

Why should Goldman Sachs financing 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) be worse than it financing Venezuela’s Maduro’s regime?

David Crow and Laura Noonan in an FT The Big Read write, “Goldman is under increasing scrutiny over its role in underwriting $6.5bn of bond offerings for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013, a service for which it reaped a hefty $600m in fees and trading gains. After the money was raised, $2.7bn was allegedly siphoned off by the Malaysian financier Jho Low, who is accused of masterminding the fraud, to pay for a lavish lifestyle and to bribe Malaysian officials.” “Tim Leissner: Goldman Sachs banker at the heart of 1MDB scandal” December 24.

Sir, why should this operation be considered so worse than when, in May 2017, Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein approved to hand over about US$800 million to the notoriously corrupt, criminal and human rights violating government of Venezuela’s Maduro?

GS, in exchange for their money obtained $2.8billion Venezuelan bonds paying a 12.75% interest rate, which if repaid would provide GS with about a 42% yearly return, 2.000% more than what US pays. Is that not bribing foreign government officials and should therefore perhaps fall under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977?

With respect to money being siphoned off, if anyone in GS doubts that much of that loan did not go the same route, then the days of GS are soon over. Such naiveté does not survive in the world of finance.

We are now in December 2018, and still not the slightest sign of a "Sorry Venezuelans" from Lloyd Blankfein. An elite, aware of its true responsibilities, would be shaming Lloyd Blankfein… and surely not inviting him to their homes. 

@PerKurowski

If elites do not socially sanction those they should sanction, there’ll be no society left to sanction.

Sir, Laura Noonan writes “Goldman Sachs is considering a special surveillance programme to monitor higher-risk employees in far-flung locations so the bank can demonstrate that “lessons have been learnt” from the 1MDB scandal” “Goldman eyes monitoring of high-risk staff after 1MDB”, December 3.

Great, but they should also monitor high-risk bosses in home office locations, like Mr. Lloyd Blankfein. And I here refer to that lending by him and Goldman Sachs to a notoriously inept, notoriously corrupt, notoriously human rights violating regime of Venezuela’s Maduro.

Do I want Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein to be punished by the justice? No! I much prefer the elite; universities, media among others should do that, shaming him, by socially sanctioning him, by for instance not inviting him to anything.

Sir, do not give Lloyd Blankfein, or an unrepentant Goldman Sachs, one inch more of space in the Financial Times, they do not deserve it.

PS. To this date Lloyd Blankfein has not been able to find in himself to utter the slightest “I’m sorry Venezuelans”.

PS. But perhaps justice might also have a bone to pick with Blankfein.

@PerKurowski

Aren’t all nations, one way or another, tarred with a similar brush of nationalism?

Sir, Harriet Agnew and David Keohane report that, on the centenary of the end of the First World War, Emmanuel Macron railed against nationalism as a “betrayal of patriotism”, in an implicit rebuke to his US counterpart. “Macron attacks nationalism in Armistice Day rebuke to Trump” November 12.

Macron said: “By saying ‘Our interests first. Who cares about the others?’ we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great, and what is essential: its moral values.” Is that not beautiful? Of course it is!

My problem though is that precisely these days I have been writing that the ending of the First World War, and the Versailles treaty, should provide an opportunity to reflect on the armistice conditions that are imposed on sovereigns, when they have to capitulate because of excessive loads of public debts. This especially because it is usually not only the defeated sovereign’s fault. 

If we look behind most odious debts, we will find surely find odious credits. In the case of eurozone sovereigns, like Greece, odiously dumb regulations too. Assigning a zero risk, as the European Commission did to a nation that is much indebted in a currency like the euro, which is not really its domestic (printable) currency, made absolutely no sense. That meant for instance that German and French banks could lend to Greece against no capital at all, and so, naturally, these banks could not resist the temptation of offering Greece too much credit, and Greece could not resist the temptation of taking on too much debt.

But what happened? The recent armistice conditions imposed by EU authorities required Greece to take on debt, much of it in order to repay German and French banks, leaving it with about a €345 billion debt, more than €30.000 per each Greek, in a currency that as I mentioned is de facto not their own. 

Sir, so I ask is that not just another Carthaginian peace? Viewed this way, no matter how right what Macron preaches is, does he really have the right to throw the first stone on “moral values”? Aren’t all nations, one way or another, tarred with a similar brush of nationalism?

Sir, this is no minor issue. Since Italy would most probably not walk the plank like Greece, the future of the Euro, and of the European Union is at stake… and that is something that those who might rightly defend the Remain against the Brexit, should at least out of pure precaution consider.

@PerKurowski

Special tax breaks for investment in O-zone is another source of distortion… and of gaming.

Sir, Gillian Tett writes that Steven Mnuchin the US Treasury secretary [told] luminaries such as Lloyd Blankfein, John Paulson, Howard Marks and Bill Ackman [to] put money into “development” projects in exchange for massive tax breaks.” “Populism is the true legacy of the crisis” August 31.

For a starter, given the presence of Goldman Sachs “luminaire” Lloyd Blankfein there I wish Mnuchin had also mentioned imposing special confiscatory taxes on any profits derived from financing regimes that notoriously violate human rights... namely giving odious credits.

As to tax breaks for investment in special opportunity zones O-zone, my objection would be the same like what I have against the risk weighted capital requirements for banks. It distorts the allocation of credit/investment to the real economy and it can be gamed.

@PerKurowski

To stand a real chance, Venezuela needs a solution that inspires at least a million of its emigrants, to immediately return to their homeland.

Sir, Ricardo Hausmann writes that for Venezuela “there is no road to recovery without the freedoms that underpin the market mechanism and without international financial assistance to kick-start imports and output. That will only happen after Mr Maduro leaves and this regime ends” “Maduro will not reverse an unprecedented economic collapse” August 24.

Indeed, but since so many of our landsmen are dying because of hunger and medicines, and the country is losing so much of its educated youth and that might find opportunities in other nations and never return, we need something much faster, much more drastic.

Hausmann states “by over-borrowing during the [oil] boom years: at over 600 per cent, Venezuela has the largest foreign public debt to export ratio in the world." If we include all the accounts payable hanging around it could even be much worse than that. 

My proposal is to capitalize on our creditors weaknesses. After excluding all those who clearly have no legal enforceable claims, and there are many of them, I would call all Venezuela’s creditors and tell them:

“Here, take all Venezuela’s oil extraction and refinery assets. Put these to work as fast as you can, so you have a chance to collect something of your credits, as fast as you can; and pay out all royalties that will be due for any oil extracted, directly, in equal parts, to all Venezuelans living in Venezuela, as fast as these can be deposited in their respective debit cards.

Then the Venezuelans would, with that money demand what they most want and need, and the market forces, in a country so blessed with so many other resources than oil, and freed from the interference of its odious redistribution profiteers, would respond, almost instantaneously.

A dream? Perhaps, but also the last thing I want for my country is a bailout a la Greece, one that leaves all our youth indebted forever.

And who knows, perhaps then even Ricardo Hausmann would leave Harvard Kennedy School and return home. I sure would!

http://theoilcurse.blogspot.com

http://unsustainabledebtsustainability.blogspot.com

http://petropolitan.blogspot.com

@PerKurowski

When will the world stop referring to those giving odious loans, odious credits, as investors?

Sir, the Lex column “Venezuela debt/Maduro: crypto communist” of August 23 writes: “It beggars belief that a country with the world’s largest oil reserves has failed financially…when prices for oil, its sole commodity, fell. Borrowing has filled the gap… Investors, including the asset management arm of Goldman Sachs, can look forward to a lengthy default”

In your editorial of August 22, “The desperate plight of Maduro’s Venezuela” you wrote: “Much of the world, especially supporters of “Chavismo” from the Panglossian left, has been disgracefully silent about Venezuela’s crisis for too long. The country is all but a failed state. As a drug-trafficking hub and the source of a huge exodus, it is already an exporter of instability.”

And I must ask when is the world going to stop referring to those who help finance regimes that are notoriously inept or/and commits awful violation of human rights as “investors”, and not as the lowly and dirty financiers they are?

Is for instance financing the smuggling of drugs more morally reprehensible than financing a regime like Maduro’s? Would you ever dream of introducing to your family and friends one who had helped finance the construction of Auschwitz, as an investor?

Yes, credit ratings might be needed, but more does the world need ethic ratings. It is way past time the world begins to understand that most odious debt there is, has its origin in odious credits, and that we need a Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism that takes that in consideration.

http://unsustainabledebtsustainability.blogspot.com

@PerKurowski

Venezuela faces a restructuring between odious creditors and odious debtors, so it behooves us ordinary Venezuelans citizens to intervene and block any odious deals.

Sir, Jonathan Wheatley and Robin Wigglesworth when reporting on the surreal sort of restructuring of Venezuela’s debt by the equally surreal Maduro government write: “Venezuela is already a serial defaulter. It has defaulted on miners, oil companies and other enterprises whose assets it has seized without compensation. It has defaulted on unpaid suppliers to PDVSA, the national oil company. Most seriously, it has defaulted on its people, denying them access to basic foods and medicines, causing an epidemic of weight loss and turning injury or illness into a mortal danger.” “Venezuela bond repayments: dead and alive” November 28.

Sir, the creditors, if they had carried out any minimum due diligence, would have been perfectly aware their financing would not be put to any good use, so for me, all their loans, given only because of juicy risk-premiums or other profit motives, are just odious credits.

And the borrowers, knowing very well they were contracting that debt for no good purposes at all, defines all these borrowings to be odious debts.

So here we are Venezuelans citizens, with children, parents and grandparents dying for lack of food and medicines. Are we now just supposed to sit down and allow this restructuring to happen on whatever odious terms the creditors and the debtors agree on in a petit committee?

No way! As a minimum, for a starter, our General National Assembly not yet in exile needs to authorize our Supreme Court of Justice in exile, to take charge so as to at least determine what could be deemed to be bona fide, dubious, or outright odious credits.

https://teawithft.blogspot.com/search?q=odious+credit

@PerKurowski

A former Executive Director of the World Bank, for Venezuela (2002-2004)

What would you as a bare minimum call creditors knowingly financing a government that in itself constitutes a brutal violation of human rights? Odious?

Sir, John Paul Rathbone, Robin Wigglesworth and Jonathan Wheatley, with respect to the surrealistic debt-restructuring initial steps in Venezuela quote Hans Humes of Greylock Capital, who is forming an investor committee with “Ultimately, there is going to be more money made in Venezuela than even in Argentina”. But the authors also rightly conclude in “The geopolitical and humanitarian consequences are likely to be larger still”, “Caracas plays its last cards” November 22.

Sir, “Food is in short supply” does not even begin to describe the tragedy.

Look at Venezuela as a prison. The food and medicines supplies it receives should be more than enough to keep all inmates healthy, but, since the guards have stolen so much of it, many prisoners, many children among them, are dying. And, in order to be able to steal more, the guards also took on huge debts in the name of the prison. And now the original creditors, or those who bought in at a later stage, and who all had all the possibilities of knowing very well what was going on, but that turned a blind eye to it when the interest rates offered by the guards were so irresistibly juicy, they want to be repaid. Will the guards do so? Will the prisoners allow that?

I have for decades called for Venezuela’s oil revenues, lately around 97% of all Venezuela’s exports, to be shared out to all its citizens, as the only way to guard against any odious or just plain dumb exercises of centralized statist power.

So what would happen if now the Venezuelans agree, in a referendum, on doing just that and then proceed to carry out the necessary changes in its constitution; and asks the IMF or the World Bank, with the assistance of other banks, to set up an oil revenue distribution system that keeps all oil exports invoiced in the name of Venezuela’s 30 and so million citizens? I am no lawyer but would a judge in New York approve the embargo of Simoncito’s part of oil, that if received would help to feed and keep Simoncito healthy?

Desperate times calls for desperate solutions, but perhaps some desperate solutions carry the potential of turning into magical solutions. For an oil cursed nation like Venezuela, that might just be what opens up its future to a much better tomorrow.

But the rest of the world could also benefit immensely. We quite frequently hear about the need for a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism, SDRM. If such mechanism started by clearly establishing the fact that most odious debts have its origins in odious credits. There often is prohibition against usury, but even more important for all us citizens all around the world, and especially for those generations of citizens coming after us, to have some sort of mechanism that disincentive the award of odious credits to governments.

In reference to that I am begging Venezuela’s National Assembly to request that Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice in exile initiates a process destined to carefully revise the origin of all Venezuela’s credits to see if they can be deemed legitimate or not.

https://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2014/05/risk-premiums-and-ethic-ratings.html

@PerKurowski

Jockeying for position to currently advise Venezuela on its debt restructuring could have serious legal, or at least reputational consequences

Sir, Robin Wigglesworth, with respect to Venezuela’s debt writes: “Any restructuring will be a Herculean task, given US sanctions” “Debt restructuring battle brews over Venezuela” November 21.

It is not only the US sanctions. Since many, or probably most Venezuelan consider those debt origination in odious or at least totally non-transparent credits we have not the faintest trust in that negotiators helping the government to restructure is helping us.

So any negotiator now would have blacklisted himself, for those restructuring negotiations that can only begin in earnest when the Maduro government is gone.

Also I cannot understand that, for instance one of the prime renegotiation advisors you mention like the “mysterious art-loving Mexican billionaire called David Martinez”, can be so naïve so as to believe that the threat of US sanction to Americans will not be extended to anyone substituting for Americans.

In summary you do not advise governments that are violating basic human rights without the possibility of facing very serious consequences for that. As a minimum they should be aware that many of us Venezuelan will, when we can, try to recoup any odious restructuring fees paid to them… and keep them away forever from Venezuela

Personally I am much in favor of the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice in exile, requested by the Venezuelan National Assembly, initiates the first stage of any debt restructuring, namely classifying all those debts in bona-fide, dubious or odious. 

https://teawithft.blogspot.com/search?q=Venezuela+debt

@PerKurowski

Should one want to have anything to do with an investment bank like Goldman Sachs that finances odious regimes?

Sir, I have no idea about what Robert Smith describes in “Goldman questioned on Verisure debt sale”, November 10; and, though it sure sounds a bit shady, I have not enough interest in pursuing the understanding of it.

That said, I would have to add though: Do you really want to have anything to do with an investment bank that finances odious regimes, like that of Venezuela?

If yes, where do you draw the line? North Korea?

PS. The vultures out there should not forget that between the case of Argentina and that of Venezuela there are some fundamental qualitative ethical differences.

And all this suffering while gas (petrol) is sold at less than US$ 1 cent per gallon

https://teawithft.blogspot.com/search?q=Goldman+Sachs+Venezuela

@PerKurowski

Could investors in Venezuelan liabilities have thought its government was up to something good? No! So don’t pay them

Sir, Robin Wigglesworth writes: “S&P last week downgraded Venezuela’s rating to the second-lowest rung possible without actually being in default, arguing there is an even chance of a full default within the next three months… Can Venezuela extricate itself from this mess? “Investors left guessing over Venezuela’s liabilities” November 8

Sir, if somebody financed a bank heist should those creditors get their money back if the heist was unsuccessful?

This is not just about Venezuela. It behooves all citizens everywhere to make sure that if creditors finance something they know is bad for the people of its country, only to obtain high risk premiums, they should not be able to expect the people of that country to sacrifice themselves in order to repay that debt.

Or in even clearer terms, should the freed prisoners of a concentration camp be expected to repay those who financed the building of it? 

Sir, we often hear the term “odious debt”. It is high time we concentrate in defining what should be considered as odious credits… because that is where it all starts. 

PS. There could also be reasons to think of “odious regulations”. If European bank regulators had not risk-weighted the capital requirements for banks when lending to Greece at 0%, then Greece would have saved itself much suffering.

@PerKurowski

What stops a Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela in exile, to request the embargo of oil unduly received by Russia?

Sir, you suggest that one of the few ways the Maduro regime could manage the restructuring of PDVSA’S bonds, is that “Moscow might… extend the cash Caracas needs to service PDVSA debt in return for cut-price stakes in local oil ventures”, “The geopolitics of Venezuela’s debt” November 5.

You really think Moscow would throw its relative scarce good money at this?

The Venezuelan Constitution in its Article 12 establishes: “Mining and hydrocarbon deposits, whatever their nature, existing in the national territory, under the territorial sea bed, in the exclusive economic zone and on the continental shelf, belong to the Republic, are the property of the Public domain and, therefore, inalienable and imprescriptible.”

And so, though I am not a lawyer, it would seem that any negotiation that assumes that local or foreign oil ventures receive an ironclad guaranteed access to Venezuela’s oil might be very naive.

I ask, if Russians end up taking oil from Venezuela under a shady deal not approved by its real General Assembly, that which is recognized by so many countries, what stops its Supreme Court of Justice in exile to request international courts to embargo it?

As I see it the best thing to happen would be a constitutional reform in Venezuela that decrees all net oil revenues belonging equally to all its citizens. What judge will then order the embargo of oil that belongs to citizens who at this moment need it to avoid death from starvation?

And the biggest benefit of doing so would be freeing the Venezuelans from having to live under the powerful thumb of a government that centralizes all that oil revenue, 97% of all the nation’s exports, in very few hands… sometimes even the hands of outright bandits.

Sir, those who awarded odious credits, should not be able to negotiate behind the back of Venezuela’s people, with those who contracted odious debts.

https://perkurowski.blogspot.ca/2017/06/a-simple-but-complex-question-from.html

http://theoilcurse.blogspot.com

@PerKurowski

If I were Puerto Rican I would be on my knees thanking President Trump. I wish he did the same for Venezuela.

Sir, with respect to President Trump informing the markets they should wave “goodbye” to Puerto Rico’s outstanding $74bn bonds, Gillian Tett writes: “it is hard to argue that the foreign investors deserve much sympathy: they bought Puerto Rico debt precisely because this offered sky-high yields to compensate for equally high risks.” "Puerto Rico’s recovery depends on debt forgiveness” October 6.

Precisely, the creditors should not be able to eat the cake and have it too.

I have often argued that in any restructuring process one would not want lenders who lent to the sovereign at low rates, or acquired sovereign debt when no repayment problems were envisaged, bona fide lenders, to receive the same treatment as those lenders who lending at high speculative rates, perhaps even helped to create the crisis that demands a debt resolution.

And, nothing discloses the frontiers between bona fide and speculative debts better than the expected risk premiums when debts are negotiated. Perhaps any sovereign debt that reflects a risk premium that exceeds for instance by 4 percent the lowest interest rate paid for similar debt to other sovereigns, the speculative threshold rate, STR, should be classified as speculative sovereign debt, SSD.

And in the case of a restructuring of a sovereign debt, any creditor who entered in possession of his credit in conditions that would deem it to be a SSD, should have all interest received in excess of the allowed STR, automatically deducted from the principal.”

Would that work? I have no idea but at least it could help restrain creditors from financing sovereigns that have not earned the right to be financed.

PS. I wish President Trump would send a similar “goodbye” message to Goldman Sachs for financing the Venezuelan regime.

@PerKurowski

Worse than odious debt that some might feel urgently needed, is odious credit that needs not to be given

Sir, Robin Wigglesworth writes: “An archaic, often-mentioned but never-invoked legal doctrine called “odious debt” could be tested for the first time in history in Venezuela should the regime be ousted from power.” September 12.

I feel that for us citizens, everywhere, even more important than the concept of odious debt, is to define a legal doctrine on “odious credit”, this for the simple reason that the first would not exist without the latter.

In other words, are we to hold an uneducated trying to survive day-by-day thug like Nicolas Maduro, to higher moral standards than those highly educated in Goldman Sachs’ who, if their education is worth anything, should be able to survive without financing badly masqueraded violations of human rights? I think no!

Sir, we do need a Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism, urgently, but if such an SDRM is really to mean something good for the world, then the concept of odious credit has to be an integral part to it.

http://unsustainabledebtsustainability.blogspot.com/2004/04/odious-credit.html

@PerKurowski

The Venezuelan National Assembly, the real not the fake, needs to be careful it does not legitimize odious credits

Sir, Henry Foy, Robin Wigglesworth and Gideon Long report on how “Venezuela [Maduro] has invited international bondholders to negotiations over its foreign debt as Caracas seeks to mitigate the impact of US sanctions and survive a deepening economic crisis.” “Venezuela sets up talks on foreign debt” September 9.

Legitimate debt/credit, sort of legitimate debt/credit, more dubious debt/credit and clearly odious debt/credit composes Venezuela’s public debt. It behooves Venezuela, as well as all citizens in the world who could in the future face similar challenges, to make sure that in any negotiations here referred to, there are true representatives of the Venezuelan citizens, in order to make sure that differentiation occurs, and that there is no legitimation of debts that do not entirely merit it.

In this respect I hope the Venezuelan National Assembly, by voting, not by some finger-pointing appointments, selects who are going to represent it in any of these negotiations; and then formally notifies all interested parties of their names, that including all officials of the Paris Club.

Clearly those Venezuelan citizens representatives must present no conflicts of interest with either creditors or with those in government that have been involved with the “contracting” of such debt.

PS. What’s “sort of legitimate debt/credit”? That which is legitimate in legal but not in moral terms.

http://unsustainabledebtsustainability.blogspot.ca/2015/10/we-must-not-allow-vulture-funds-to.html

@PerKurowski

Odious debts, odious credits and odious regulations are all yin-yang elements of the financial sector

Sir, M Shepherd, when commenting on Alex Pollock's letter "Sovereign debt has a pretty bad record" August 16 writes that “All too often, debates about defaults on government bonds focus on the borrowers and neglect the lenders.” “The other side of the sovereign debt story”August 18.

Absolutely, and that is why when I write about odious public debt, like that contracted in Venezuela, I always follow it up with one about odious public credit, like those awarded to Venezuela.

But, of course I have to add a point. For instance the immensely excessive public debt in Greece would never have happened had regulators not, for the purpose of setting the capital requirements for banks, assigned Greece a zero percent risk weight.

Those regulators have not been held accountable either, among others because of the network solidarity FT has showed them … in fact they have been promoted to central banks… and our banking system still lives under the distorting thumb of risk weights.

@PerKurowski