Argentina's government of thieves refusing to pay court ordered debt

AP/Houston Chronicle:

Argentina's president is refusing to go along with a U.S. judge's ruling requiring a $1.5 billion repayment of defaulted bonds, even though the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her government's appeals and left the order in place.

In a national address Monday night, Cristina Fernandez repeatedly vowed not to submit to "extortion," and said she had working on ways to keep Argentina's commitments to other creditors despite the threat of losing use of the U.S. financial system.

Her hard line came hours after the justices in Washington refused to hear Argentina's appeal, and it could be a last effort to gain leverage ahead of a negotiated solution that both sides say they want. But with only days before a huge debt payment ordered by the court is due, many economists, analysts and politicians said the country's already fragile economy could be deeply harmed if she didn't immediately resolve the dispute.

Refusing to comply with rulings that have been allowed to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court "would be very damaging to the Argentine economy in the near future," said Miguel Kiguel, a former deputy finance minister and World Bank economist in the 1990s who runs the Econviews consulting firm in Buenos Aires.

Argentine markets were already reflecting fear. The Merval stock index dropped 11 percent after the court decision, its largest one-day loss in more than six months, and the value of Argentina's currency plunged 33 percent on the black market.
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 Fernandez has run the Argentine economy into a ditch and has defaulted on its bond debt which was subsequently purchased at a discounted value by investors who insists on being paid in full.  This is another reason why I question teh judgment of energy companies who have invested in that country's shale deposits.  How can they be sure Argentina will honor their obligations under that contract.