Felix Salmon relays Johann Hari’s article in the Independent criticizing “vulture” funds:
Would you ever march up to a destitute African who is shivering with Aids and demand he “pay back” tens of thousands of pounds he didn’t borrow – with interest? I only ask because this is in effect happening, here, in British and American courts, time after time. Some of the richest people in the world are making profit margins of 500 per cent by shaking money out of the poorest people in the world – for debt they did not incur.
The Independent is a serious newspaper. Yet somehow it has decided to publish an article by an author who does not quite seem to understand
- The concept of sovereign debt;
- The concept of a debt market;
- The difference between nominal yield and current yield. (more…)
