Last month the Carnegie Mellon professor appointed himself savior to some 600,000 European and Japanese retail investors who hold $24 billion in Argentinean bond debt that plummeted in value when the country defaulted on its foreign currency obligations in December 2001. The 46-year-old, who advises the U.S. Congress on international economic policy, has gotten European and Japanese banks to sign on to a plan to pool the defaulted Argentinean paper. Led by HVB Group, Shinsei Bank and Germany's investor protection association, DSW, this consortium is to coordinate the interests of retail bondholders -- exponentially boosting their bargaining power.

The banks have set up a Dublin special purpose vehicle, the Argentine Bond Restructuring Agency, to collect bonds and issue certificates. Lerrick and former Mexican Finance minister Angel Gurri´a are to negotiate new terms with Buenos Aires. ABRA will then swap restructured bonds for certificates.

Lerrick contends that if ABRA is successful, it will dissuade policymakers from creating cumbersome bureaucratic mechanisms for dealing with future sovereign debt restructurings. "If it works, it will show that the private sector can solve these problems," he says hopefully.