But the buyback can succeed only if the market perceives it as the last chance before a unilateral debt restructuring. In other words, a successful buyback is a preamble to default.

The latest package to cope with Greece s insolvency offers a bond buyback to lighten the country s debt burden.

Howard s government also implemented a rigorous buyback policy, to enable the government to purchase guns already owned by the public.

Bolivia s 1988 buyback of close to half of its defaulted sovereign debt, an operation funded by international donors, is a classic example.

A compendium of academic works on the option buyback issue is included in the study Scandal by author M. Gumport issued in 2006.

If the threshold spread is set reasonably high in order to achieve a significant discount, the stock of debt retired by the buyback would be marginal.

A debt buyback is something of a Catch 22 to succeed in inducing a haircut, it needs to profit from the default fears that it intends to alleviate.

A debt buyback is something of a Catch 22 to succeed in inducing a haircut, it needs to profit from the default fears that it intends to alleviate.

After all, by capping spreads, the buyback facility would limit the downside risk while providing incentives to hold the bonds and wait for the upside a good reason, perhaps, to make the facility a temporary offer.

Conditions for gun ownership in Australia are now very strict, and the registration and approval process can take a year or more. Howard s government also implemented a rigorous buyback policy, to enable the government to purchase guns already owned by the public.

To speed things up, after the default was declared in December 2008, Ecuador completed the buyback with an inverse auction for the remaining bondholders, to be settled in cash rather than a regular exchange in which the legality of undercover purchases was likely to be questioned.