When, why and how do countries go bust? That’s the topic of the latest New Money Review podcast, where I’m joined by Greg Makoff, a former physicist, banker, government advisor and now senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Makoff is the author of a recent book on what has been called “the most contentious default in history”—Argentina’s 2001-2016 debt restructuring.

In the podcast, we discuss:

• When, why and how countries go bust
• What distinguishes a sovereign insolvency from a corporate or personal bankruptcy
• Who has jurisdiction over sovereign defaults?
• What brings governments and creditors to the table?
• Sovereign immunity and the negotiating power between debtor and creditor
• What went wrong in Argentina’s debt restructuring?
• How Elliott Capital Management made billions on defaulted Argentinian debt
• The broader public policy lessons of Argentina’s debt restructuring
• China, the IMF and the geopolitics of sovereign debt
• Default risk in domestic and foreign currency bonds
• Why sovereign debt problems will never go away