Recently the New York Times reported the following:
Big Investors Await Windfall from Trump’s Argentina
Bailout (1/2)
The United States finalized a $20 billion lifeline for
Argentina that will benefit Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s allies.
The NYT - By Alan Rappeport and Maria Abi-Habib
Oct. 9, 2025
The Trump administration moved forward on Thursday with its
bailout of Argentina, making a direct purchase of pesos and finalizing terms of
a $20 billion lifeline, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
The terms and conditions of the economic support package were not announced, but Mr. Bessent said the funds would come in the form of a currency swap with Argentina’s central bank. Big global investors have been anxiously awaiting the details of the bailout, which critics have said will benefit wealthy fund managers at a time when American farmers are struggling and the U.S. government is shut down.
Officials from both countries spent the last four days racing to finalize terms of the bailout ahead of high-stakes legislative elections in Argentina later this month and a visit to Washington next week by President Javier Milei, Argentina’s libertarian leader who is a close ally of President Trump.
“Argentina faces a moment of acute illiquidity,” Mr. Bessent wrote on X. “The U.S. Treasury is prepared, immediately, to take whatever exceptional measures are warranted to provide stability to markets.”
But the administration’s decision to rescue Argentina’s economy is raising concerns about whether the real aim is to help rich investors whose bets on Argentina could falter if its economy sinks.
Those efforts have been complicated by the fact that major hedge funds, including those led by friends of Mr. Bessent, stand to benefit financially from an Argentina economic lifeline. Funds at investment firms including BlackRock, Fidelity and Pimco are heavily invested in Argentina, as are investors such as Stanley Druckenmiller and Robert Citrone, both of whom worked with Mr. Bessent when he was an investor for George Soros.
The Treasury’s intervention on Thursday offered a lifeline to Argentina’s financial markets, which have floundered as the country has faced a severe cash crunch. Dollar-denominated bonds set to expire in 2035 rebounded to levels last seen when Mr. Bessent first announced the United States would be stepping in. The peso also rebounded, although currency experts worry that it will soon come under pressure again without a longer-term fix for the country’s financial woes.
The prospect that the Trump administration would rescue Argentina’s economy and aid wealthy investors at a time when federal workers aren’t getting paid amid a shutdown and struggling American farmers are awaiting an economic relief package has drawn criticism from Democrats, farm industry groups and others.
On Thursday, a group of eight Democratic senators introduced legislation that would prevent the Treasury Department from using its Exchange Stabilization Fund to shore up Argentina’s finances.
“It is inexplicable that President Trump is propping up a foreign government, while he shuts down our own,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the banking committee, who helped draft the legislation. “Trump promised ‘America First,’ but he’s putting himself and his billionaire buddies first and sticking Americans with the bill.”
The legislation is unlikely to pass, but it demonstrates the political headwinds that Republicans could be facing over Argentina.
Ahead of his meeting with Luis Caputo, Argentina’s economy minister, Mr. Bessent insisted last weekend that the proposed $20 billion central bank swap line did not amount to a bailout of Argentina or a gift to wealthy investors.
“This trope that we’re helping out wealthy Americans with interest down there couldn’t be more false,” Mr. Bessent told CNBC. “What we’re doing is maintaining a U.S. strategic interest in the Western Hemisphere.”
International investors have long looked at Argentina as a place to make a profit, particularly related to government debt that successive leaders have taken on. In many instances, investors are not the original bondholders, but have bought at a discount from the nation’s original lenders, and are wagering that the liens will eventually be repaid or renegotiated.
That view is beginning to pay off. One Fidelity fund this summer credited winnings from the country’s debt with helping compensate for losses from investments in other so-called emerging market countries including Venezuela and Ukraine.
In particular, wealthy Americans with close ties to Mr. Bessent stand to win big.
Mr. Druckenmiller was a mentor to Mr. Bessent at Soros Fund Management. The Duquesne family office, which he runs, was the second largest investor in Argentina’s principal exchange-traded fund, a pool of Argentine stocks.
Mr. Citrone, the founder of Discovery Capital Management, has made Latin America his biggest bet in the world, and Argentina is the fund’s biggest investment in the region. Mr. Citrone has said that when he worked with Mr. Bessent under Mr. Soros in 2013, he convinced them to make their now famous bet against the Japanese yen and that he was responsible for most of the bonus that Mr. Bessent earned.
“I kind of convinced George and Scott Bessent at the time to go big on that. And, you know, Scott says I’m responsible for 75 percent of his bonus at Soros, kind of jokingly, over that time,” Mr. Citrone said in an interview on a podcast hosted by Goldman Sachs in May, according to the transcript posted on the bank’s website.
(to be continued)
大型投資者翹首以盼特朗普的阿根廷救助計劃帶來意外之財（1/2）
美國敲定了一項200億美元的紓困計劃，將惠及財政部長貝森特的盟友。
美國財政部長貝森特表示，特朗普政府週四推動了對阿根廷的紓困計劃，直接購買阿根廷比索，並敲定了200億美元紓困計劃的條款。
這項經濟支持計劃的條款和條件尚未公佈，但貝森特表示，這筆資金將以與阿根廷央行進行貨幣互換的形式發放。全球大型投資者一直在焦急地等待救助計劃的細節，批評人士稱，在美國農民苦苦掙扎、美國政府關門之際，該計劃將使富有的基金經理人受益。
兩國官員在過去四天裡爭分奪秒地敲定救助條款，以應對本月晚些時候阿根廷舉行的至關重要的立法選舉，以及下週阿根廷總統 Javier Milei 訪問華盛頓的事宜。他是阿根廷自由主義領袖，也是特朗普總統的親密盟友。
貝森特先生在X網站上寫道:「阿根廷正面臨嚴重的流動性短缺」; 「美國財政部已準備好立即採取一切必要的特殊措施，以穩定市場」。
財政部長補充說，美國商界領袖告訴他，他們希望深化與阿根廷的關係，特朗普政府將支持其拉丁美洲盟友。
但美國政府拯救阿根廷經濟的決定引發了人們的擔憂，人們擔心其真正目的是否是為了幫助那些賭注在阿根廷的富裕投資者, 如果經濟下滑他們可能蒙受損失投資。
這些努力因大型對沖基金（包括貝森特先生朋友所領導的基金）將可從這條阿根廷經濟生命線中而獲益而變得更加複雜。BlackRock, Fidelity 和 Pimco 等投資公司的基金在阿根廷投入了大量資金，還有其他投資者例如 Stanley Druckenmiller 和 Robert Citrone, 两投資者都曾在貝森特先生擔任索羅斯(George Soros) 的投資者時一起共事。
美國財政部週四的干預措施為阿根廷金融市場提供了一線生機。由於阿根廷面臨嚴重的資金短缺，金融市場一度陷入困境。 2035年到期的美元計價債券價格反彈至貝森特先生首次宣布美國將介入時的水平。阿根廷比索也出現反彈，但貨幣專家擔心，如果該國的財政困境無法長期解決，比索很快就會再次受壓。
在聯邦政府工作人員因政府停擺而拿不到工資、美國農民苦苦掙扎正在等待經濟救助方案之際，特朗普政府拯救阿根廷經濟並援助富裕投資者的前景招致了民主黨、農業產業團體和其他人士的批評。
週四，由八名民主黨參議員組成的小組提出了一項法案，該法案將阻止財政部動用其外匯穩定基金來支撐阿根廷的財政狀況。
參與起草該法案的銀行委員會民主黨高層、馬薩諸塞州參議員 Elizabeth Warren說:「特朗普總統一邊支持外國政府，一邊卻讓我們自己的政府關門，這真是令人費解」;「特朗普承諾 ‘美國優先’，但他卻把自己和他的億萬富翁夥伴放在第一位，讓美國人買單」。
這項法案不太可能獲得通過，但它表明共和黨在阿根廷問題上可能面臨的政治阻力。
在與阿根廷經濟部長 Luis Caputo會晤之前，貝森特先生上週末堅稱，擬議的200億美元央行互換額度並非對阿根廷的救助，也不是對富裕投資者的禮物。
貝森特先生告訴CNBC：“我們幫助在那處有利益的美國富人的說法再荒謬不過了。我們所做的是維護美國在西半球的戰略利益。”
長期以來，國際投資者一直將阿根廷視為獲利之地，尤其是在歷屆領導人所承擔的政府債務方面。在許多情況下，投資者並是非最原先的債券持有人，而是以折扣價從該國最初的貸款方手中購買，並押注這些留置權最終會被償還或重新談判。
這種觀點開始奏效。今年夏天，Fidelity旗下的一種基金將該國債務的收益用於彌補在其他所謂新興市場國家（包括委內瑞拉和烏克蘭）的投資損失。
尤其是與貝森特先生關係密切的美國富豪，他們有望獲得巨額利益。
Druckenmiller先生曾是貝森特先生在索羅斯基金管理公司時的導師。他經營的Duquesne家族辦公室是阿根廷主要交易所交易基金（ETF）的第二大投資者，該基金是阿根廷股票池。
作為 Discovery Capital Management 的創始人， Citrone先生將拉丁美洲視為他在全球最大的賭注，而阿根廷是該基金在該地區最大的投資。Citrone先生曾表示，2013年他與貝森特先生一起為索羅斯工作時，他說服他們押注日圓走弱，貝森特先生所獲獎金的大部分都是他賺來的。
根據該銀行網站上發布的採訪記錄, Citrone先生在5月份接受高盛播客採訪時說道:「當時我說服了索羅斯和貝森特大舉押注日元。你知道喇，貝森特像似開玩笑地說，那段時間他在索羅斯的獎金有75%因我而獲得」。
（待續）
Note:
1. Fidelity Investments, formerly known
as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered
in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, provides financial services.
Established in 1946, the company is one of the largest asset managers in the
world, with $5.8 trillion in discretionary assets under management, and $15.1
trillion in assets under administration, as of December 2024. (Wikipedia)
2. Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO) is an American
investment management firm. While it has a specific focus on active fixed
income management worldwide, it manages investments in many asset classes,
including fixed income, equities and other financial assets across public and
private markets. PIMCO is one of the largest investment managers, actively
managing more than $2 trillion in assets for central banks, sovereign wealth
funds, pension funds, corporations, foundations and endowments, as well as
individual investors around the world. PIMCO has over 3,100 employees working
in 22 offices throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. PIMCO is also the
world's largest active ETF manager, as well as one of the first to introduce
actively managed ETFs. (Wikipedia)
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