Gregory Makoff, PhD, is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and an expert on sovereign debt management. A former banker specializing in debt advice, liability management, and derivatives, he has also advised the US Department of the Treasury.
"[A] superb account. -- David Skeel, University of Pennsylvania * Wall Street Journal * Default is a powerful, exciting and instructive book that clearly and surprisingly amusingly presents the 'lengthiest, messiest sovereign debt restructuring in history' (283). * ReVista Harvard Review of Latin America * This book is a pleasant surprise. * CHOICE connect * A scrupulously fair and comprehensive look at the trial of the century for sovereign debt. -- Robin Wigglesworth * Financial Times * Featuring excerpts from numerous legal briefs, oral arguments, and judicial musings and decisions—as well as revealing interviews with key participants—the book should be required reading for students of international law, and of interest to anyone wanting to understand what the ""Trial of the Century,"" as it was referred to in the press and among attorneys, was all about. * Americas Quarterly * [Makoff] packs a lot of detail about the many overlapping legal cases, the players on all sides and the macro conditions into this ""courtroom drama,"" which doubles as a guide about challenging debt restructuring. * Ziemba Insights * For students and professors, Makoff sticks the landing in authoring both a scholarly and practical history. Much ink has been spilt in academic circles on how sovereign debt markets work in theory. It took a practitioner like Makoff to explain how the world is rather than how it is supposed to be. -- Samy B. Muaddi, Georgetown University * Enterprising Investor * Alternating between spellbinding narrative and dry legal analysis, he describes the thrust and parry between Argentine governments and litigious investors.... * Foreign Affairs * In his magnificent new book, Default, Gregory Makoff tells the story of one of the most fascinating (and surreal, I would say) episodes in Argentina's history....The book is full of information, testimony from the main players, quotes from the international media, and statistical data obtained from various sources. All this makes it an important scholarly contribution to the literature on sovereign defaults. But there is more to it than this. There is also a fair amount of gossip, and the book is written in a lively style. It sometimes reads like a novel.... Makoff tells the story of the final negotiation, with all its drama and complexity, in a masterful way. * Literary Review *"