Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Anna Gelpern @agelpern.bsky.social · 2h

Thanks to Princeton SPIA in DC for hosting us on Monday, Day 1 of #DebtCon8 Starting at dawn with the existential question: Liquidity?! @princetonsovfinlab.bsky.social @publicdebtispublic.bsky.social #SovereignDebtForum @findevlab.bsky.social @upanizza.bsky.social @mkessler.bsky.social

Layna Mosley @laynamosley.bsky.social · 12h

It's the most wonderful time of the year....for debt geeks. @agelpern.bsky.social @upanizza.bsky.social @mkessler.bsky.social and I are so excited to welcome folks to DebtCon8!

web.cvent.com/event/005168...

DebtCon 8.

2025 Advanced eDiscovery Institute

web.cvent.com

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Anna Gelpern @agelpern.bsky.social · 1d

@upanizza.bsky.social #DebtCon8 is real & it’s 1glorious #DebtCon 3days 75papers 15panels 11 RTs 99speakers fr 6continents +10^6 #sovereigndebt acronyms eg #PSI #DSA #PCS #PDIP & #OMG aka #Argentina @laynamosley.bsky.social @mkessler.bsky.social @robinwigglesworth.ft.com @georgetownlaw.bsky.social

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Ugo Panizza @upanizza.bsky.social · 1d

Jet lagged but happy to be back in the US fior #DebCon8

Anna Gelpern @agelpern.bsky.social · 9d

Less than two weeks left ‘til the #PublicDebtIsPublic platform launch at #DebtCon8! 😮 #sovereigndebt #debtcon #sovereigndebtforum @georgetownlawofficial @upanizza.bsky.social @laynamosley.bsky.social @mkessler.bsky.social @diegorivetti.bsky.social @davidmihalyi.bsky.social @tracyalloway.bsky.social

PublicDebtIsPublic @publicdebtispublic.bsky.social · 9d

Debt transparency is essential for:

✅ Democratic governance
✅ Sound economic management
✅ Properly functioning financial markets

#PublicDebtIsPublic is shifting debt information norms to establish meaningful public access to the legal and financial terms of public debt.

#SovereignDebt

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Anna Gelpern @agelpern.bsky.social · 9d

Less than two weeks left ‘til the #PublicDebtIsPublic platform launch at #DebtCon8! 😮 #sovereigndebt #debtcon #sovereigndebtforum @georgetownlawofficial @upanizza.bsky.social @laynamosley.bsky.social @mkessler.bsky.social @diegorivetti.bsky.social @davidmihalyi.bsky.social @tracyalloway.bsky.social

PublicDebtIsPublic @publicdebtispublic.bsky.social · 9d

Debt transparency is essential for:

✅ Democratic governance
✅ Sound economic management
✅ Properly functioning financial markets

#PublicDebtIsPublic is shifting debt information norms to establish meaningful public access to the legal and financial terms of public debt.

#SovereignDebt

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PublicDebtIsPublic @publicdebtispublic.bsky.social · 9d

Debt transparency is essential for:

✅ Democratic governance
✅ Sound economic management
✅ Properly functioning financial markets

#PublicDebtIsPublic is shifting debt information norms to establish meaningful public access to the legal and financial terms of public debt.

#SovereignDebt

1

Matthew Erie @matthewserie.bsky.social · Sep 4

A new study by Kiel Institute on How China Collateralizes show how rather than infrastructure as collateral, it's cash collateral in escrow reserves paid by debtor's commodity exports which underpin such agreements. Governance implications.

www.ifw-kiel.de/fileadmin/Da...

@agelpern.bsky.social

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Home of the Brave @ofthebraveusa.bsky.social · Aug 30

Public servants should face the public. So why are federal agents wearing masks to hide their faces?

Check out our mobile billboard driving around Washington, D.C. right now demanding federal agents take their masks off!

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Matthew Bond @mjb1959.bsky.social · Aug 29

Totally agree, but, in the meantime, Maryland could offer free vaccines to residents of D.C.,and ask fellow pro-science states to help with the cost.

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Anna Gelpern @agelpern.bsky.social · Aug 29

Reason No. 9000 for #DCStatehood.

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Cory Booker @corybooker.com · Aug 16

Take it from the citizens of DC. This is all a distraction, and another power grab that threatens the health of our democracy.

op: @washingtonpost.com

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ACLU of the District of Columbia @aclu-dc.bsky.social · Aug 15

Micromanaging the day-to-day affairs of D.C. is not what voters elected the president and members of Congress in their home states to accomplish.

We need D.C. statehood NOW: dcstatehoodnow.org

An ACLU tweet against a backdrop of D.C. rowhomes reads, "We need DC statehood NOW."

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · Aug 12

"There really is one crucial, unbridgeable difference between Washingtonians and other Americans: You have more power than we do—a lot more power"
Statehood for DC!
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

A Real Place Deserves Real Rights

Statehood for Washington, D.C., is a matter of justice.

www.theatlantic.com

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Jeremy Kress @jeremykress.bsky.social · Apr 3

My friend @agelpern.bsky.social made my day by reviewing "'Least-Cost' Resolution" in @jotwell.bsky.social!

"A far more expansive replacement of the current cost test ... would surely set off a political battle. At least we would be battling over the right things."💯
corp.jotwell.com/a-costly-cos...

A Costly Cost Test - Corporate Law

Jeremy C. Kress, "Least-Cost" Resolution, 43 Yale J. on Reg. __ (forthcoming, 2026), available at SSRN (Sep. 03, 2024).Anna GelpernBanks have magic powers: they can conjure money out of thin air, send...

corp.jotwell.com

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Jun 8

Here’s the “Presidential Memorandum”:

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

There’s no Insurrection Act invocation; Trump is federalizing 2000 CA Nat’l Guard personnel only to “protect federal functions.”

*Without* invoking the Insurrection Act, anything more would violate the Posse Comitatus Act.

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Anna Gelpern @agelpern.bsky.social · Jun 29

What happens is negotiated. What should happen depends on all-in terms, which can be hard to discern.

Ugo Panizza @upanizza.bsky.social · Jun 27

DebtNerds drinks at the very cool Ground Control in Paris with @agelpern.bsky.social @davidmihalyi.bsky.social @mkessler.bsky.social @theomaret.bsky.social @diegorivetti.bsky.social

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Kiel Institut @kiel.institute · Jun 26

"How China Collateralizes" ist eine Zusammenarbeit unserer Autor*innen Christoph Trebesch, Sebastian Horn und Paulina Kintzinger mit @agelpern.bsky.social @georgetownlaw.bsky.social @piie.com, Omar Haddad und Bradley Parks AidData @wm.edu
ifw-kiel.de/de/publikati...

China verlangt umfassende Sicherheiten für Kredite an Entwicklungsländer

Chinas Staatsbanken verlangen für Kredite an Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländer oft umfangreiche Sicherheiten, die über die typische Absicherung zwischen Staaten hinausgehen und den Anforderungen priva...

ifw-kiel.de

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Kevin Carey @kevincareywb.bsky.social · Jun 26

“We see Chinese lenders expanding and adapting standard market tools to make exceptionally risky loans safer,” said Anna Gelpern, a Georgetown Law Professor and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “ @agelpern.bsky.social www.aiddata.org/blog/chinese...

Out of public sight, China’s state-backed lenders secure priority repayment from emerging economies with cash collateral

New report and cache of Chinese debt contracts reveal that the commodity export revenues of developing countries are routed to offshore bank accounts, raising fiscal governance and debt transparency c...

www.aiddata.org

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Anna Gelpern @agelpern.bsky.social · May 5

Huge thanks to @taicollab.bsky.social and our amazing community for hosting the first sneak peak preview of the #publicdebispublic platform @georgetownlaw.bsky.social @massivedatagu.bsky.social @qmul.ac.uk @publicdebtispublic.bsky.social #sovereigndebt Stay tuned for pilot demo at #DebtCon8

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Ugo Panizza @upanizza.bsky.social · May 5

6/ TL;DR: Sovereign debt isn’t just about who can or can’t pay. It’s about who gets to write the rules of the game.
ideas.repec.org/a/anr/reveco...

Enough Potential Repudiation: Economic and Legal Aspects of

This article reviews recent economic and legal literature on sovereign debt in light of the COVID-19 shock. Most of the core theoretical contributions across the two disciplines hinge on immunity, and

ideas.repec.org

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Ugo Panizza @upanizza.bsky.social · May 5

5/ The legal side is just as important. Most contracts assume hard enforcement — but sovereign debt lives in a gray zone. Lawyers and economists often speak past each other. We try to bridge that gap

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Ugo Panizza @upanizza.bsky.social · May 5

4/ Debt models built on “limited commitment” can’t handle the real world. Governments borrow more than they should, default less than predicted, and often repay despite having no legal reason to.

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Ugo Panizza @upanizza.bsky.social · May 5

3/
We argue that it’s time to ditch the old split between developing countries and advanced economies and suggest that we’ve focused too much on immunity and not enough on authority — the state’s power to write rules, manage institutions, and shape financial architecture.

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Ugo Panizza @upanizza.bsky.social · May 5

2/
“Sovereigns won’t repay because they can’t be forced to.” Right? Well… not so fast. We unpack how sovereign debt theory is stuck in the past — and what to do about it.

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Ugo Panizza @upanizza.bsky.social · May 5

1/
Today I re-read "Enough Potential Repudiation: Economic and Legal Aspects of Sovereign Debt in the Pandemic Era" with @agelpern.bsky.social and published in the @annualreviews.bsky.social of Economics. I still think it's a cool paper
🧵 and link
ideas.repec.org/a/anr/reveco...

Enough Potential Repudiation: Economic and Legal Aspects of

This article reviews recent economic and legal literature on sovereign debt in light of the COVID-19 shock. Most of the core theoretical contributions across the two disciplines hinge on immunity, and

ideas.repec.org

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PublicDebtIsPublic @publicdebtispublic.bsky.social · May 5

Join us online for Public Debt Transparency: Aligning the Law with Good Practices, a conference co-organized with the International Monetary Fund Legal Department to examine the pressing challenges of making information about public debt accessible to its stakeholders. Scan QR Code Below.

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