FOREIGN POLICY/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/VENEZUELA: “Venezuela was ruled in default on a missed interest payment by S&P Global Ratings, pushing the cash-strapped South American country and its creditors one step closer to a reckoning of its $150 billion debt load.
The decision by S&P, one of the two main U.S. rating companies along with Moody’s Investors Service, capped off a day in which Venezuela promised to keep paying its debts at a conference in Caracas that was attended by few of the Western bondholders that are likely to be hit by a default.
S&P downgraded Venezuela’s long-term debt rating to selective default late Monday after it said the government failed to make two bond coupon payments.
The rating firm’s action could have far-reaching consequences for the country and its bondholders. It represents a potential new dilemma for the Venezuelan government, which has struggled to meet payment deadlines in recent months but until recently has just skated by.”
-Julie Wernau and Anatoly Kurmanaev, “S&P Rules Venezuela in Default on Interest Payment,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 13, 2017 11:11pm