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Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States, has missed a debt payment for the third time. The island has $72 billion of debt:
Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla calls it a "humanitarian crisis," which a step above an economic emergency. He claims he is prioritizing paying Puerto Rico's police and teachers over Wall Street. "I had to make a choice. I decided that essential services for the 3.5 million American citizens in Puerto Rico came first," the governor said in a speech Sunday. This is the third time the island has defaulted on bond payments. The island paid the interest due Monday, but not the principal amount, resulting in a default of about $370 million, Puerto Rico's largest yet.
Also at NPR, The New Yorker , The Washington Post , The Atlantic , Reuters.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:05PM
Ok Ill bite.
Bush tax cuts didn't contribute to the Great Recession
The congress of 95-2000 and the president of that era contributed more to the great recession than any other group. They mandated that credit must be given to those who 'deserve it' not those who are most able to use it and pay it back. That created huge sums of cash. Once the bills started to not be paid credit froze up. Even though in 2002 there were people on the floor of the congress induced by the president and the fed to 'fix it' and they did nothing and were called racist for suggesting doing so.
The balanced budget that Clinton and his buddy Newt came up with? They basically wiped out social security and called it 'good'. If Bush had left taxes were they were would that have magically fixed the great recession?
trickle-down Reaganomics always work
Did you know that under Regan tax revenue nearly doubled? He did that by removing loop holes and simplifying the tax code and giving most people more money to spend and making companies pay 'their fair share'. Then every president thereafter put it all back. In fact his successor labeled it voodoo economics. His successor flattened our industrial sector with NAFTA and created a huge credit bubble that has burst twice (so far) and created a credit deleveraging we have not seen since 1929. His successor created a war with no payment plan. His successor added 8k in taxes to every American payable not to the government but to private corporations and mostly left the Bush tax structure alone.