As a new year begins, governments around the world are poised for another cycle of debt disputes and missed payments. Venezuela is stumbling into default after starving its people for years to pay foreign creditors. Its hard currency reserves are drying up under pressure from US sanctions as the government battles hyperinflation, runs out of things to sell to China and Russia, and tries to buy time with a wacky virtual currency scheme. Meanwhile, Ukraine and Puerto Rico will each go to court in January to fend off debt collectors. Ukraine has appealed an English court decision that would enforce its debt to Russia as if it were an ordinary commercial contract, despite Russia’s annexation of Crimea, crippling trade sanctions, and sponsorship of separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. A fund known for making a fortune from suing Argentina has challenged a US federal law enacted in 2016 that promised bankruptcy-style debt relief for Puerto Rico. If the fund wins, hopes for a fresh start for the hurricane-battered commonwealth and an equitable resolution for its creditors would dim.[…]