Mitu Gulati, a University of Virginia law professor, has studied a lot of sovereign debt defaults and restructurings over the years. One clear conclusion he’s come to: Countries get “screwed” when they toss in complex financial instruments as a sweetener to convince creditors to accept the deals they’re proposing. So when Suriname unveiled an agreement this month that includes a high-fangled security pledging to hand creditors a cut of a potential oil bonanza, it got Gulati’s attention. In theory, he says, these sweeteners “are beautiful.” Both sides should win. But in practice, government officials give away way too ... (full story)