Posted on 10/03/2017 7:30:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In an interview with Fox News, President Donald Trump said that Puerto Rico's debt will have to wiped out.
"They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we're going to have to wipe that out. You're going to say goodbye to that, I don't know if it's Goldman Sachs but whoever it is you can wave goodbye to that," Trump said on Tuesday in an interview with Fox News, according to a Reuters report.
Trump visited the island on Tuesday, two weeks after Maria destroyed Puerto Rico's entire infrastructure system, leaving nearly 3.5 million residents without power, and tens of thousands without clean water.
The official death toll more than doubled to 34, a spokesman for Governor Ricardo Rosello said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Even before the storm brought Puerto Rico to a near standstill, the government there already struggled with an economy in shambles and a default on billions of dollars of public debt.
Today, the U.S. territory has nearly $70 billion in debt, an unemployment rate 2.5 times the U.S. average, a 45 percent poverty rate, nearly insolvent pension systems and a chronically underfunded Medicaid insurance program for the poor.....
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
What does rule of law have to do with anything? It’s called bankruptcy for a reason. With the situation they were in BEFORE the hurricane they were already bankrupt. Pension funds in a lot of states are going to face the same problem in the next 20 years
He’s not. He’s telling private bond holders they are screwed
Think of the potential for PR to be a great place for Caribbean vacationers to spend their time.
The posters here seem to think that PRs situation is unprecendented. It’s not. In the 1840’s eight states and one territory went bankrupt (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Florida Territory). All these bankruptcies were tied to overspending on infrastructure and the aftermath of the Panic of 1837.
All of them found ways to either restructure the debt or in some cases default on it. This time around, PR is only the canary in the coal mine. CA and IL are certainly going to follow in a few years, I suspect there are several other states that will also have problems.
I think Mr. Trump can help facilitate a reasonable restructuring that will allow the Commonwealth a fresh start. That will be a good precedent for managing the much larger state bankruptcies that will certainly follow.
There are trillions upon trillions of notes, functioning as money, which are backed only by the full faith and credit of people who create nothing and produce little or nothing of value. The bonds of Puerto Rico and the college loans of liberal arts majors are both in this category, as are urban enterprise zone loans, mortgages for people on welfare, and so on.
Theses debts will be unwound. That is beyond a doubt. Who gets screwed and how is our next big political story.
The banks are desperate to make sure it’s the taxpayers. One of the reasons Trump is hated by them is that he knows how they work better than most people do, and he may very well issue a Debt Emancipation Proclamation that excuses the taxpayers from debts they never agreed to, in which case life as Goldman Sachs knows it is over.
We live in interesting times.
“He’s telling private bond holders they are screwed”
Which, of course, they are - and they’re not the only ones.
Student loans will be voided within the next ten years, probably sooner.
The day after I write the last check so my seven kids can all graduate debt free, probably.
Someone on the White House staff needs to give Trump a quick briefing on the longstanding debate about sovereign bankruptcy. Puerto Rico in the wake of a hurricane is not the time or place to accidentally discover the issue. Whatever precedent we establish in Puerto Rico will be carried over to a dangerously long list of states, and if we start letting corrupt political establishments off the hook, moral hazard becomes entrenched.
Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Good, then not another penny.
When he said this, I was hearing Javanka whispering in his ear.
"They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we're going to have to wipe that out. You're going to say goodbye to that, I don't know if it's Goldman Sachs but whoever it is you can wave goodbye to that,"
He's not talking about giving them a federal bailout. He's talking about bankruptcy. Debt repudiated. All the people holding PR bonds taking a bath.
If this happens, the ability of Dem-controlled regions being able to borrow will be crippled, and they will have to adjust their spending to come in line with actual revenues.
You are to be congratulated.
You pays your moneys, you takes your chances.
Post in context video of Trump “bragging” about using bankruptcy “multiple times “to have a clean slate”.
I’ll wait.
Message to lenders who give funds to corrupt and nearly bankrupt governments - you are on your own.
I don’t like it really, but on top of the recovery costs from the hurricane, Trump might be stating the reality, like it or not.
“Should I run for president?”
No - not of the US. You have to be a citizen for that.
Just kidding.
Probably!
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