On the 26th floor of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in New York, the seats are packed. Billions of dollars and the fate of an entire country - Argentina - are on the line and everyone from bondholders and Wall Street analysts to dozens of lawyers, have come to see in whose favour Thomas Griesa, a senior judge in the southern district of New York, will rule. Judge Griesa, a small, bespectacled, rather hunchbacked figure, is not going to let the gravitas of the moment cramp his style. Nor does he appear entirely amenable to Argentina's arguments. The republic's lawyer, Jonathan Blackman of Cleary Gottlieb, argues that an unfavourable ruling would halt the country's debt exchange, agreed to by three-quarters of bondholders. "It will be back to square one," he warns. "Reduce the rhetoric," is Judge Griesa's response. Given that it is already three-and-a-half years since Argentina defaulted on its $82bn in debt, this is definitely bad news.
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