PUERTO RICO’S DEBT CRISIS HASN’T GONE AWAY: It just disappeared from the headlines because it’s such an inconvenient topic.
This article takes a lefty point of view. See, it’s the “colonial” U.S. government. No, not quite. It’s the Detroit and Illinois problem — governments that spend money they don’t have. But the article does recognize the debt threat.
The commonwealth’s debt position is clearly unsustainable, and its economy will be able to recover only if it gets a fresh start. But, unlike US municipalities, Puerto Rico is not protected by the US bankruptcy code. It is well known that decentralized bargaining processes for debt restructuring often lead to disastrous outcomes, with the relief obtained being insufficient to restore debt sustainability.