This article argues that the relationship between finance and state sovereignty is neither automatic nor understandable in some generalized manner. To develop this argument, I pay particular attention to the financialization of distressed sovereign debt, especially sovereign debt defaults in the Global South with particular reference to Argentina’s default in 2001 and the string of legal cases it triggered. These legal processes breathed a strange after-life into Argentina’s defaulted debt by converting that debt into fully commodified financial contracts. I argue that the financialization of sovereign debt is enabled by a long and complex evolution in the application of the doctrine of restrictive sovereign immunity. This financialization, moreover, is indicative of ways in which forms of financial distress are reworked as renewed sources of financial value. This provokes questions about the very relationship between waste and value in our global political economy.

本文认为，金融与国家主权之间的关系既不是自动的，也不是某种广义的理解。为了提出这一论点，我特别关注陷入困境的主权债务的金融化，尤其是全球南方主权债务违约，特别是提到了2001年阿根廷的违约及其引发的一系列法律案件。通过将这些债务转换为完全商品化的金融合同，这些法律程序为阿根廷的拖欠债务注入了奇怪的余生。我认为，主权债务的金融化是由于限制性主权豁免原则的应用经历了漫长而复杂的演变而实现的。而且，这种金融化 表示将财务困境的形式作为新的财务价值来源进行重新处理的方式。这就引起了人们对我们全球政治经济中的浪费与价值之间的真正关系的质疑。