Argentina defaulted on its government debt about 15 years ago. It offered a take-it-or-leave-it writedown to the bondholders, and most of them took it. The others got nothing. Now, the U.S. courts have ruled that the dissenting bondholders are entitled to full repayment, and have enjoined any bank with Argentine government money not to pay out anything unless all are paid equally. This is because of what is called the "pari passu" clause in the bond contract, which I read from Mark Weidemaier's Credit Slips post, " Argentina's (not so) unusual pari passu clause," says:
