Free Republic

No, really? (smiley face) “The debt is not payable,” Mr. García Padilla said. “There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math.” Well I'll be damned. On the other side of the table, of course, are hedge funds that bought the debt when Puerto Rico got in trouble at a deep discount and expect 100 cents on the dollar. They're not inclined to bargain, and will now (of course) look to the government to hand them a gun to use on Padilla. Unfortunately that doesn't change the math either....

A die-hard Hillary Clinton supporter – a young, female Millennial – recently applied to be a fellow with the campaign and was accepted. However, she was asked to move out of state and work for free. It was hard not to laugh at her over-the-top, entitled millennial reaction published in USA Today: “Finding out that Hillary perpetuates the exploitation known as unpaid internships was like discovering that Santa wasn't real.” Poor baby. Millennials are in a tough position right now. They are hard pressed to find work, with 14% of them unemployed, others barely able to make it on a...

The governor of Puerto Rico has admitted that it can't keep paying down the over $72 billion worth of public debt obligations. As a result, it finds itself in a uniquely awful position. It can't go into bankruptcy according to its own laws, so now it has to deal exclusively with its creditors to restructure its debt. That means it has to deal with Wall Street. "I think the surprise was that it happened this quickly," said Brian Kelly, CEO of Connecticut-based fund Brian Kelly Capital. "We thought it would take 6 months to a year... the solution is a...

The governor of Puerto Rico told the New York Times that the island cannot pay back it's $72 billion debt and will seek permission from its creditors to defer payments. The news precedes an address by Governor Alejandro Garcia to the Puerto Rican legislature, where he will unveil a budget that cuts about $670 million from a $9.8 billion budget, while setting aside another $1.5 billion to pay the debt. Fox News: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla's spokesman, Jesus Manuel Ortiz, confirmed that the island's government is seeking to defer payments while negotiating with creditors. He confirmed comments by Garcia that appeared...

<p>Greece and its principal creditors—the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund—should acknowledge that Athens will never be able to repay the €131 billion it owes, write down its debt and let the Aegean nation exit the euro gracefully.</p>

Puerto Rico’s governor, saying he needs to pull the island out of a “death spiral,” has concluded that the commonwealth cannot pay its roughly $72 billion in debts, an admission that will probably have wide-reaching financial repercussions. The governor, Alejandro García Padilla, and senior members of his staff said in an interview last week that they would probably seek significant concessions from as many as all of the island’s creditors, which could include deferring some debt payments for as long as five years or extending the timetable for repayment. “The debt is not payable,” Mr. García Padilla said. “There is...

Just a few hours ago Greek PM Tsipras addressed his nation imploring then to "remain calm" and reassuring them that their "deposits were safe." It appears the Greeks did not believe him. Many were wondering where the Greek bank lines were for the past several months. Turns out the local depositors were merely waiting until just after the last minute to withdraw their funds... horde gas... and stack food. Greece, it appears is Venezuela - the new socialist paradise. Keep Calm...

Thousands of years after the Roman Empire fell, people are still speculating about how such a powerful empire became too feeble to defend itself. Did it become corrupt? Was its taxes too high? Was it widespread lead poisoning? The refusal to break up tribes it assimilated? Was it the loss of traditional values? Did it over-expand? There are all sorts of theories, but nobody really knows. However, if American falls, historians won’t have to speculate because the problems that are destroying our country are right there for anyone to see. You want to know how to break the greatest nation...

Did you know that the national debt could skyrocket if fiscally irresponsible Republicans decide to repeal ObamaCare? President Barack Obama, sounding a bit like a member of the Tea Party on Twitter Monday, warned that the national debt could increase by $137 billion if his signature achievement is repealed. This marks the first time Obama has ever shown concern about the national debt — which has exploded under his stewardship:The United States’ national debt has now passed the $18 trillion mark and is up by a whopping 70 percent since President Obama took office.

That didn’t take long. Earlier this month, in reference to the Department of Education’s $3.5 billion bailout for Corinthian College students, I observed at NRO, “What’s especially worrisome here is the frontal attack the administration is mounting on notions of students’ responsibility.” The fear was that sensible attention to student debt would change into an excuse for borrowers to default and stick taxpayers with the tab. That moment has already arrived. Just last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a report that found that co-signers have a rough time getting released from their promises to repay private student loans....

Like Greece, the Puerto Rican government has more debt than it can service, and some are calling for a bailout by U.S. taxpayers. The major Puerto Rican state-owned or controlled enterprises are all losing money, including the power authority which is insolvent. Puerto Rico is an American territory that was acquired from Spain in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. The island has a population of about 3.6 million, which is declining as many Puerto Ricans emigrate to the U.S. mainland or elsewhere because of the continuing economic stagnation. Puerto Ricans are American citizens, but their per capita income is about...

DETROIT may be one of the only cities in the rich world where it is possible for someone on a fairly modest income to buy a street. At the edges of Boston-Edison, a historic district of gorgeous old houses built as one of the city’s first wealthy suburbs, so low has the cost of housing fallen that fairly grand houses can be acquired simply for the cost of back property taxes. ..Chief among the costs that are higher in Detroit is transport. One of the reasons people who live in Manhattan don’t mind paying so much for housing is that...

Corporations, individuals and the federal government continue to rack up debt at a rate that is far faster than the overall rate of economic growth. We are literally drowning in red ink from sea to shining sea, and yet we just can’t help ourselves. Consumer credit has doubled since the year 2000. Student loan debt has doubled over the course of the past decade. Business debt has doubled since 2006. And of course the debt of the federal government has doubled since 2007. Anyone that believes that this is “sustainable” in any way, shape or form is crazy. We have...

(CNSNews.com) - The portion of the federal debt that is subject to a legal limit set by Congress closed Thursday, June 11, at $18,112,975,000,000, according to the latest Daily Treasury Statement, which was published at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. That, according to the Treasury's statements, makes 90 straight days the debt subject to the limit has been frozen at $18,112,975,000,000. $18,112,975,000,000 is about $25 million below the current legal debt limit of $18,113,000,080,959.35.

Chalk this one up to yet another New York Times liberal who wants others to pay his bills. (Paul Krugman must be proud.) On the 71st anniversary of what some considered the most important day of the twentieth century, a day where thousands of men, for the sake of others, paid with all that they had, the opinion pages of the New York Times ran the “brave” piece, “Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans.” (I suppose the author will receive the Bruce Jenner award for courage.)

Pick up any paper or magazine, and you’re likely to see a front-page article on college: It costs too much, spawns too much debt is or isn’t worth it. I entered academia 52 years ago as a student of Latin and Greek expecting to enter a placid sector of American life, and now find my chosen profession at the center of a media maelstrom. With college replacing high school as the required ticket for a career, what used to be a quiet corner is now a favorite target of policymakers and pundits. Unfortunately, most commentary on the value of college...

The U.S. and other wealthy nations have spent trillions of dollars over the past half-century trying to lift the world’s poorest people out of penury, with largely disappointing results. In 1966, shortly after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty, 14.7% of Americans were poor, under the official definition of the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2013, 14.5% of Americans were poor. Finally, after decades of failure there is a movement afoot to launch “a new generation of experimental programs focusing not on large-scale social support and development but on helping the poor and indebted to save more, live better...

The federal government will erase much of the debt of students who attended the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges, officials announced Monday, as part of a new plan that could cost taxpayers as much as $3.6 billion. Corinthian Colleges was one of the largest for-profit schools when it nearly collapsed last year and became a symbol of fraud in the world of higher education and student loans. According to investigators, Corinthian schools charged exorbitant fees, lied about job prospects for its graduates and, in some cases, encouraged students to lie about their circumstances to get more federal aid. In a plan orchestrated...

The political class -- they build themselves new office buildings and such -- live in a different universe from the rest of us, and the rest of us are getting routinely pickpocketed. No greater proof of this truth exists than the remarks of St. Paul's own City Council Member Dave Thune last week after Metro Transit released the financial figures for the first six months of the Green Line. Passengers boarding the Green Line from its debut in June, 2014 through the end of the year paid $6.21 million into the farebox, or about 35.8 percent of what it costs...

Half of the Millies are out of work and up to their eyebrows in student loan debt, Millies Millenials—people born between 1980 and 2000—have become a hot topic for politicos, economists, marketers, the “mainstream” media (read: Leftist Democrat Propaganda Machine) and a host of others in recent months. It’s estimated that there are about 80 million of these Millies in the U.S., a pretty hefty demographic comprising about a third of our population. Though the 2016 elections are nearly a year-and-a-half away, this significant bloc of potential voters is being looked at with increasing interest—more like with drooling jowls -...