The UN Tribunal for Laws of the Sea has ordered that Ghana release the Argentine ship ARA Libertad.
The ship was seized in October pursuant to court actions brought by American Vulture Fund wheeler-dealer Paul Singer. Singer's funds bought Argentine sovereign debt at huge discounts around the time of Argentina's default ten years ago, and has been using the courts to try to force Argentina to repay their bonds at face value.
It's a great strategy when it works. Several years ago Singer's funds made an estimated 400% windfall profit pursuing the same strategy with discounted Peruvian bonds. That's a windfall Peru's impoverished campesinos continue to pay for.
The irony is that Argentina's legitimate creditors have long ago settled with the government. The Singer funds, which never lent Argentina any money but bought the distressed paper on the open market, now claim that the integrity of the global financial order is at risk if opportunistic paper-shufflers like themselves are not paid off in full.
Sounds to me like a great argument for a 100% tax on non-productive economic activity.
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