Here’s Bernie Sanders’ Plan To Save Puerto Rico And Stick It To Vulture Funds
"Puerto Rico’s economy has been in a depression for a decade. With the territory likely to default on a $2 billion debt payment on July 1, the island’s ugly humanitarian situation could become even more nightmarish.
More than half of Puerto Rican children already live in poverty, its unemployment rate is over 12 percent and the government has been closing schools and curbing public services to help make short-term debt payments. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Rico is barred from requiring vulture funds — those that invest in distressed debt — to take haircuts on government bonds. The ruling grants the federal government exclusive jurisdiction over any debt reduction scheme for the U.S. territory. Wall Street hedge funds were thrilled.
But the July 1 deadline and the Supreme Court ruling also strengthen the hands of Washington politicians — including those more enamored with traditional thinking at the International Monetary Fund than with the concerns of American citizens living in Puerto Rico.
Thus far, there have been two positions on resolving the Puerto Rican crisis circling through the nation’s capital. Vulture funds have pursued a “screw you, pay me” strategy that has gained traction with many congressional Republicans, while decimating Puerto Rico’s economy. The Obama administration, by contrast, has backed a bipartisan bill to impose further budgetary austerity on the island, coupled with meaningful debt reduction. The bill’s austerity intent is clear. It would allow for the minimum wage to be suspended, and would lift President Barack Obama’s new overtime pay expansion island-wide. American citizens in Puerto Rico might well ask whether being stripped of labor protections provided to mainlanders is a product of the island’s colonial history. It’s hard to see what private-sector investment in such plans would encourage other than, say, payday lending."
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_575f4316e4b053d433061860
There's no spite in this man.