NEW YORK TIMES: …Puerto Rico defaulted on a $58 million bond payment on Monday, a risky move that seemed to intensify the pressure on creditors for broader debt renegotiation, but might also make future borrowing far more difficult.
Puerto Rico is carrying immense debt, in excess of $72 billion, that has raised serious questions about its financial future. Although it has come close to default before, the step on Monday was the first since it came under jurisdiction of the United States 117 years ago…
Puerto Rico’s governor, Alejandro García Padilla, has called the total debt “unpayable” and is calling for a broadly based debt moratorium; details are to be released on Sept. 1…
[Sergio M. Marxuach, public policy director at the Center for a New Economy,] said the government seemed to be hoping to attract attention in Congress, where a bill that would give certain public enterprises on the island access to bankruptcy court has been languishing. He predicted that Congress would do nothing for Puerto Rico before the August recess, and in the meantime the default would bring market turmoil and opposition… (more)
EDITOR: Greek citizens have nowhere to really go. But Puerto Ricans are U. S. Citizens and, with minimal language barriers, can readily relocate to the states. If we do not allow the island to re-structure under bankruptcy law, will the last Puerto Reican please turn out the lights?
