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Whether a state or a territory, there is no mechanism for Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy. As with international defaults, drawn out negotiations are likely to provide Puerto Rico with a combination of federal aid, creditor haircuts, and new lending. In the meanwhile, like Argentina and other dead beat sovereign borrowers, Puerto Rico will have years to contemplate the perils of excessive borrowing.

For reasons unknown, conservatives and Republicans do not run Spanish language campaign ads blasting Puerto Rican Democrats in Florida as advocating the same leftist policies that have led to such misery in Puerto Rico. More than a few Puerto Ricans recognize that to be so and recoil from the Democratic party as a result.

One Puerto Rican couple of my acquaintance purposely settled well north of Orlando in an old house in a white neighborhood that was built in the 1930s. It does not take much for the couple to denounce the faults of Puerto Ricans, Obama, and the Democrats. They strictly limit their visits to family in Puerto Rico lest their children develop a sense of identification with the island and its misfortunes.