Paul Singer made it onto Forbes billionaire list on the backs of some of the poorest people in the world.
Singer was one of the pioneers of buying distressed sovereign debt, then holding out for full payment using the American court system to bully impoverished third world nations.
There is a drama unfolding today in the African country of Ghana, where the government has been persuaded to enforce an American court order in favor of Singer's hedge fund.
Back in 2002, as Argentina's economy was collapsing, Singer's hedge funds bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Argentine bonds for pennies on the dollar. He has spent the last ten years taking the Argentine government through the US court system to get full payment on those bonds.
His argument is cloaked in the usual brew of self-righteous faux indignation about a promise being a promise, etc, and oh my God, if people can just walk away from their debts, civilization as we know it will collapse.
That's an argument that is favorably received by Republican appointees on the bench when made by major donors to the Republican party. Then a pliable foreign country seeking to curry favor with the US can be persuaded to enforce America's judicial decisions.
That's what Ghana has done by seizing an Argentine naval vessel as surety for Singer's bonds.
The Argentinians are having none of it. This could blow up into a major international incident at any moment.
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