State contingent instruments can play a role in debt restructuring agreements, but they shouldn’t be a give-away to investors. There is a compelling case for their use in Zambia—but not in Sri Lanka. After months of delay, the debt restructuring process for low income countries that borrowed excessively from both China and the bond market is starting to grind forward. For all the talk of a need for a new institutional architecture for sovereign debt restructuring, real progress generally comes from innovations introduced to solve complex cases. [...]