Apparently Puerto Rico is hosed. I'm trying to wrap my head around U.S. hospitals getting their electricity cut off. John Oliver explains it all better than I can, but in a nutshell huge public debt and no way to pay it back or restructure the payments. They missed one yesterday for just a few hundred million. Bigger payments are looming though.
Mrs. DX and I watched that last week and our minds were blown. 
The whole thing sounds a bit too much like that recent mortgage thing....
Potentially huge floundering rant...
Ahhh, never mind, I'm out.
I hear as punishment they're forcing statehood upon them.
Wow. Just. wow. 
I thought about buying an itty-bitty piece of property down there, because I think when they fix their issues that'll be the place to be.
Except they'll never fix their issues. The hedge funds have no interest in helping them and they don't have any legal ways to get out of the mess they've gotten themselves into.
Might as well work on a plan to buy into Cuba once that becomes possible again.
There's a lot of this going around. Be here soon.
1988RedT2 wrote: There's a lot of this going around. Be here soon.
That was my thought...
In reply to Stefan (Not Bruce):
Well, sort of.
If you don't have $70 billion and you don't have the ability to restructure, what are the creditors going to do? March in and steal your underwear?
Their debt problem will go away, either by changes in policy, or simply a change in attitude (where they decide to accept the fact that they have nothing and it will remain that way). They may just develop a massive case of don't-giva-berkeley-itiice.
Either way, they are not gonna pay it- problem solved.
Which doesn't make it a terrible place to own a small piece of land.
Don't worry, trump's got this.. 
As I've posted before, a few years ago, I figured out that I don't want to retire there. Apparently, 1/2 of the debt was medical related- in a system where there are already not enough doctors, and they are leaving every day.
I'm not sure what to make of it, too- when you visit, I just don't see the massive amounts of people not working or spending money. Tons of new cars, malls filled to the brim, people buying stuff all over the place. By now the "cheap loans" has to have dried up. We are also aware of a pretty big cash economy- even for doctors and lawyers. Before my FIL passed, he told us a news story of big time lawyers who have new homes and new cars claiming that their income was just $16k (or so).
dunno.
alfadriver wrote: Before my FIL passed, he told us a news story of big time lawyers who have new homes and new cars claiming that their income was just $16k (or so). dunno.
That sounds pretty Greek to me.
I'd take it over Cuba.
Average monthly income for a doctor in Cuba is $40.
Average cost for a pair of blue jeans is $45.
Yeah socialism!
Don't get me wrong- I'd love to visit Cuba. Just wouldn't want to live there.
I'm self-censoring and staying out of this thread (other than this post 
.).
captdownshift wrote: I hear as punishment they're forcing statehood upon them.
They probably should....
Why do we have anything to do with them again?
In reply to sesto elemento:
Umm...maybe because they are US citizens?? 
WOW Really Paul? wrote:captdownshift wrote: I hear as punishment they're forcing statehood upon them.They probably should....
and then welcome to the fuster cluck
sesto elemento wrote: Why do we have anything to do with them again?
The one conquest from the Spanish-American war that we kept.
There's a decent list of territories similar to Puerto Rico that the US has. Just not in the same financial situation.
fasted58 wrote:WOW Really Paul? wrote:and then welcome to the fuster cluckcaptdownshift wrote: I hear as punishment they're forcing statehood upon them.They probably should....
IMHO, it would be a good thing to take out a lot of the corruption.
captdownshift wrote: I hear as punishment they're forcing statehood upon them.
PR should become a state. And so we don't have to change our flag or have an uneven number of states it's time to start combining some. We really don't need two Dakotas when the population of each could fit in a middle school gymnasium.
alfadriver wrote:sesto elemento wrote: Why do we have anything to do with them again?The one conquest from the Spanish-American war that we kept. There's a decent list of territories similar to Puerto Rico that the US has. Just not in the same financial situation.
US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, and Midway come to mind.. I think Guam and Midway are uninhabited
Comments about math are so true. I work for the Missouri Senate as a financial analyst and people are berkeleying scared of math. Especially Politicians.
You'll need to log in to post.
