This administration has treated Puerto Rico so poorly, they might consider seceding.

[raccoon]

Maybe they could join up with Catalonia.
Should I add LOL?

[DetlefK]

1. Puerto Rico is broke. They can't afford to be their own nation.

[Not Ruth]

2. If they secede and form a new country, they discharge their debt and start over, like a bankruptcy

It happens all the time with small and medium businesses in the US, they start over the next day with a new name and no debt.

Call it Boricua

[DetlefK]

3. Oh, yeah. And everybody will just accept that Puerto Rico declares its debts void.

Who in his right mind would buy puerto rican state-bonds??????????

Who in his right mind would make a deal with Puerto Rico when Puerto Rico reserves the right to simply back out of their part of the deal?



You know why Greece is in the shits right now? Because Greece lied and cheated.
Every single financial report that the greece government sent to the EU from 2000 to 2009 was a complete fabrication.
So, when Greece went bankrupt, the EU had two options:
Option 1: Trust Greece to stop doing what they have been doing forever and pump money into Greece until the problem goes away.
Option 2: Don't trust Greece and take steps to make sure that Greece won't lie to you again.

I'm sure, the investors will looooooooove to make business with a country that plays fast and loose with its financial obligations.

[Not Ruth]

4. Who would buy Puerto Rican state bonds tomorrow, they are not going to sell either way

One way opens up a debt free path to future prosperity, the other is an unsustainable burden,

[DetlefK]

6. Oh, I can promise that puerto rican bonds WILL sell, but you won't like the result.

Because of Puerto Rico's financial past, the investors will demand assurances.
The investors will demand high interest rates because of the high risk.

The question is: Can Puerto Rico afford to sell state-bonds with high interest rates???




You want locusts? 'cause that's how you get locusts.

[Not Ruth]

7. No one will buy them now because they will be last in line to get paid

Do a bankruptcy, the new buyers go to the front of the line to get paid. That has got to be a better scenario for selling new bonds.

[Hortensis]

9. Read Lee-Lee. PR HAD very inadequate income before, and

erasing debt on paper would not erect one single power pole or put one single plantain on one single table. Did you know that even PR's fresh water supply is seriously depleted and worse to come? Tourism income wasn't enough before and now its infrastructure is in ruins!

At this point secession would be a disaster for Puerto Rico far larger than Hurricane Maria.

Yes, we're letting them down! We're talking pump stocks and "WHY did he do it?" while Puerto Ricans despair and even die. If we lived there, I would be very, very afraid that the extreme negative reactions of PR's radicals and reactionaries, supported by idiot conservatives, could bring on that dreadful disaster. Very much the way these same kinds of people, far left joined with right, brought disaster on our whole country in 2016.

The behaviors of these groups are referred to as "extreme" for good reasons, and none of them include good sense. The welfare of every group on the planet has always depended on keeping these types out of power, and when that fails, well, "Katie, bar the door" has never put even one plantain on the table.

[Lee-Lee]

5. They still have no economic engine, it would be suicide

They have little to no economic engine.

What manufacturing is there is partially in shambles

Much of the manufacturing that is done there now is only done there because of economic incentives from the Federal government. If they secede it's a double whammy of those incentives going away and suddenly having to deal with the issues of that now being a foreign manufacturing plant adding all the hassles.

The tourist industry there is in shambles now, and the biggest draw it has going for it is the fact that it's the only Caribbean destination not requiring a passport and customs, secede and that one advantage is gone.

Nobody would issue them credit or bonds in that condition.

[rickford66]

8. Secede and declare it a tax haven.

The PR citizen could technically still be US citizens as would their offspring etc. I'm probably wrong about all this though.