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originally posted by: queenofswords
................These religious, government, and world order leaders have decided THEY are going to be judge, jury, and executioner because they know sooooo much better than the rest of us. They believe they have a "higher" power and "the ends justify the means". They believe they are entrusted with a mission by virtue of their leadership positions and that mission just so happens to involve lots of $$$$ to line various pockets of the church and others.
.......................
originally posted by: texasgirl
This is unrelated but I couldn't help noticing the eerie similarity in names here:
The priest who administered the last rites to Justice Scalia: Miquel Acuino
The Temple of Set (Church of Satan) founder and Satanist: Michael Aquino
Oooooh...Goose bumps!
Former President Cristina Fernandez refused to negotiate with the group of creditors she called "vultures," even after New York federal court Judge Thomas Griesa repeatedly ruled against Argentina.
Former Chesapeake Energy Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon, a brash risk-taker who helped transform the U.S. energy industry with shale gas, died when his car slammed into an overpass on Wednesday, one day after being charged with breaking federal antitrust laws, police said. He was 56.
Aubrey McClendon is at it again. The founder and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) recently partnered his new private company, American Energy Partners LP, with Argentina's state-run YPF SA (NYSE:YPF) to explore and develop unconventional oil and gas in the South American nation.
[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] on Wednesday lifted injunctions [order, PDF] blocking Argentina from paying its restructured debt. According to Judge Thomas Griesa, the circumstances of the situation have changed so significantly [AP report] that the injunction was now detrimental to public interest. Lawyers for a majority of Argentina's creditors requested [CN report] that the judge instate a 30-day delay of the ruling in order to pressure Argentina to negotiate further, which Griesa denied, citing a pressing need or finality. Argentina, which has been blocked from paying holders of its restructured bonds since July 2014, will now be able to make payments. These bond holders are owed more than $3 billion in past due interest.
U.S. Supreme Court “Validates” Vulture Fund Activities
WASHINGTON , Jun 17 2014 (IPS) - The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reject an appeal by the Argentine government will embolden aggressive “holdout” creditors, anti-poverty groups say, and make it far more difficult to arrive at debt-relief agreements for poor countries.
The move, announced Monday, is a definitive setback for Argentina, which has been battling two U.S. hedge funds for years to allow a major debt-restructuring agreement to go forward. Yet the court’s decision is also being seen as a significant loss for poor countries looking for debt relief.
“I’m still reeling from this news,” Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, an umbrella of religious anti-poverty groups, told IPS.
Argentina Alleges Extortion After Supreme Court Sides with Vulture Funds Preying on Sovereign Debt
We look at a case that is being called the "trial of the century" in how poor countries repay sovereign debt. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Argentina over its $1.5 billion debt in a ruling critics say validates predatory behavior by so-called "vulture funds."
The case involves hedge funds that bought up Argentina’s debt at bargain rates after its financial crisis more than a decade ago.
After Argentina defaulted on its debts, the vast majority of its creditors agreed to slash the value of their holdings. But NML Capital and other firms refused to accept the deal, instead seeking full repayment. Monday’s ruling leaves in place a lower court decision ordering Argentina to pay the companies.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has called the firms’ actions "extortion."
We are joined by Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network.
79 Religious and Development Institutions Join SCOTUS Filing in Argentina/NML Capital Case
WASHINGTON, DC - Jubilee USA Network, a religious anti-poverty coalition, along with 78 other religious and development groups filed with the US Supreme Court in the case between Argentina and NML Capital. The Amicus Curiae brief takes the side of Argentina because the precedent of the case impacts predatory behavior on vulnerable populations. The friend-of-the-court brief argues that the case will have a detrimental impact on the poor, undo bipartisan United States debt policy and cause global financial instability. Filers joining Jubilee USA include: American Jewish World Service, Church World Service, Action Aid USA, numerous synagogues and churches across the US and a deluge of Catholic religious orders of nuns and priests. Read the full list of the 79 groups and Jubilee USA's Amicus Curiae.
"At the end of the day, this case is about a precedent that could expose developing economies to extreme predatory behavior," noted Kent Spriggs the attorney representing the 79 groups "The Supreme Court's decision will affirm or harm current bipartisan US debt policy."
The Supreme Court would likely decide by the summer whether or not it will actually hear the case. The case goes back to 2001, when Argentina defaulted on roughly $81 billion in debt. Multiple hedge funds purchased debt for pennies on the dollar. These hedge funds are called "vulture" funds because they prey on countries in financial distress and target assets that benefit poor populations. The nearly 93% of bondholders who restructured their debts with Argentina have seen the value of their bonds increase. The holdout hedge funds that are suing Argentina refused the deal several times and have instead sued for the full amount of the debt they purchased.
The Amicus brief quotes expert economists and lawyers, the International Monetary Fund, studies on debt, Adam Smith, Pope John Paul II and scriptures holy to Christians and Jews. "Our Supreme Court brief starts like a prayer, becomes a doctoral thesis summary and ends like a sermon," said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network. "This case will impact millions of poor people around the world and they deserve a hearing."
In addition to Jubilee USA and its partners, Brazil, Mexico, France and Nobel Laureate and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz have announced their intention to file on behalf of Argentina. In addition to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank has strongly criticized the behavior of these hedge funds, and the United States government has sided with Argentina in a related case before the Supreme Court. The international consensus against this behavior mirrors the bipartisan consensus around the very debt relief policy threatened by the actions of these predatory funds.
The brief powerfully examines the impacts of the case on future debt restructurings, poverty and the international financial system. The following are quotes pulled out from Jubilee USA Network's friend-of-the-court brief as submitted for filing:
"Because using law to dispossess the poor for the pleasure of the powerful offends not only the sense of justice embodied in United States policy, but the even more ancient principles of biblical justice revealed in the scriptures of our faiths, we respectfully submit this amicus curiae brief requesting that the Court accept certiorari."
"The opinion...now threatens to unravel United States debt relief policy and undo much of the progress made on behalf of the poor."
"The presence of even a single holdout can deter otherwise cooperative creditors from agreeing to restructure a country's debt...the...decision below would make holding out and suing...the most rational strategy for creditors."
"Allowing the decision below to stand would...equip financial companies that prey on the poorest nations and people of the world with a game-changing legal precedent to accelerate their predation."
"If allowed to stand, the decision in this case...has the potential to generate systemic risks in the international system."
"Upholding the decision...would harm or frustrate numerous established policies of the United States...[that] began during the Bush administration and have been continued by the Obama administration.
In a seven-to-one decision (with one Justice not taking part), the Court ruled that investors who bought bonds that went into default and never drew any pay from Argentina can get access to a potentially wide array of bank records to locate financial assets overseas that those investors might be able to seize as compensation.
And, without comment, the Court cleared the way for those same investors to demand payment on the bonds they hold whenever Argentina makes any payments to holders of later bond issues which that country has continued to honor. At this point, it is not clear when that opportunity would actually occur, as a practical matter, because Argentina has some legal maneuvers still available and there has been some talk of a potential settlement deal.
After weeks of anticipation about how the Court would deal with the long-running legal fight over Argentina’s debts to foreign investors, the Justices took what well may be decisive action on both that government’s obligations to those investors and the options open to those investors to find out where Argentina keeps its money, around the globe — an initial step toward going after some of those assets.
Argentina Pays Paul Singer's "Vulture Fund" $2.4 Billion
Meanwhile, new details have emerged about this week’s settlement between Argentina and billionaire Republican Party donor Paul Singer’s hedge fund Elliott Management. Elliott Management was one of many U.S. hedge funds to buy up Argentine debt at pennies on the dollar amid the country’s economic crisis in 2001.
Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had long demanded the hedge funds, which she called "vulture funds," renegotiate the debt, arguing they were unfairly profiting off Argentina’s economic crisis.
But this week, President Mauricio Macri’s right-wing government agreed to pay Singer’s fund and three others $4.65 billion. Singer’s fund itself netted $2.4 billion—10 to 15 times
Argentina is now where myths, rumors and historical facts of that time collide. The stories say Nazis arrived by rubber dinghies off the coast of Patagonia, bedraggled from the long journey. The stories say crates of Nazi gold hit the beaches, then vanished into the foggy Andes Mountains. The stories say Hitler himself found new life in an Argentine idyll, “doddering peacefully in the Andean foothills attended by faithful Nazi servants.”