Default hangs over Argentina again as talks fail

Argentina defaulted for the second time in 12 years yesterday, after last-ditch talks with what it called "vulture" creditors failed, though debt insurance prices suggested investors believed a deal could eventually be reached.

After a long legal battle with hedge funds that rejected Argentina’s debt restructuring following a 2002 default, Latin America’s third-biggest economy failed to strike a deal in time to meet a midnight payment deadline.

Journalist Joaquín Morales Solá, writing in the national daily paper La Nación, accused president Cristina Kirchner of being in denial. “The government’s attitude is unexplainable,” he wrote.