Recent Sovereign Debt Drama. Plus: Zambia’s Weird Bond Contracts

Are EU member states jointly and severally liable for EU bond debt? (No, of course not. Well, kind of…) Other than being fun at parties, what makes a “social” bond social? And has the G-20’s Common Framework removed the need to worry about a wave of defaults and restructurings in the wake of the pandemic? Our guest this week is the eminent Lee Buchheit, who kindly fields these and other off-the-wall questions from us in the first half of the show. In the second half, we talk about Zambia and what a debt restructuring in that country might look like. Actually, we talk about weird clauses in the Zambian eurobonds that might be relevant in a restructuring. Can it really be the case that Zambia can unilaterally modify its way out of debt?

Producer: Leanna Doty