Here's What Could Happen to Venezuela's Messy $170 Billion of Debt

Odd Lots

Bloomberg

Business News, News, News Commentary, Business, Investing

4.5 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There are a bunch of questions right now about the future of Venezuela, and one of the big ones is what's going to happen to its circa $170 billion pile of debt. Some investors have been snapping up defaulted Venezuelan bonds, betting that a future restructuring could hand them a hefty payout. Others argue that the Venezuelan people shouldn't be saddled with debt issued by an authoritarian regime. In this episode, we speak with the legendary lawyer Lee Buchheit. Lee has worked on more than two dozen sovereign debt restructurings over the course of a 40-year career, including those of Iraq and Greece. He explains how a Venezuelan debt workout might unfold and the unique challenges that arise when trying to restructure the obligations of a sovereign nation.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Markets move fast.
0:01.7	Get the insights you need in 10 minutes with Barclays Brief,
0:04.8	a podcast from Barclays Investment Bank.
0:07.1	Each week, our experts analyze market themes,
0:09.7	helping you anticipate what's next.
0:11.6	Listen to Barclay's Brief wherever you get your podcasts.
0:17.5	Bloomberg Audio Studios,
0:20.0	Podcastss Radio News
0:22.4	Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Tracy Allaway.
0:37.9	And I'm Joe Wisenthal.
0:39.3	Joe, Venezuela.
0:40.5	Venezuela Week.
0:41.6	So we've done the oil market.
0:43.2	Yeah.
0:43.5	We got to do the debt market.
0:44.8	We got to do the debt market.
0:45.9	I don't know anything about this stuff.
0:47.3	Well, okay.
0:48.5	One of the reasons that I really like covering the debt market bonds is because I think we're used to thinking of bonds
0:55.5	as contracts. Yeah. But I always like to think of them more as stories. Yeah, yeah. So they're
1:02.5	full of all these narratives and embedded values and history. And there's actually a great quote
1:08.7	from Margaret Atwood. She wrote this whole book called Payback on
	...

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