Economist suggests Caracas bond move to share burdens

When Argentina’s Senate recently passed a “price fixing law” to curb inflation following its sovereign debt default, the government attacked critics who accused it of turning the country into a Venezuela. Instead, it seems, Venezuela may be turning into an Argentina. Last week, one of Venezuela’s most distinguished economists suggested Caracas should default on its foreign bonds. Given that Venezuela’s more than $100bn of hard currency debt accounts for a chunk of emerging market indices, this would be a major market event. More…