Buy, buy, buy! NYTimes picks up the Iraqi debt story. The traded debt originally lent by banks, that is, not the what they're negotiating about in Paris right now, which was money lent by other countries. That is, the London Club versus the Paris Club. Slate has a nice little explainer if you're confused.

In the Times article, this sentence jumped out:

A widely held view in Washington is that loans made to the Hussein government amount to "odious debt" that the lenders should forgive.

You've got to admit, it's nice terminology. I also notice this Richard Segal character at London's Exotix is really the man to talk to about exotic debt. Maybe they should change their name to Odi-ux?