US official says Puerto Rico should get access to bankruptcy

The funds commissioned a report from former worldwide Monetary Fund (IMF) economists misleadingly titled, “For Puerto Rico, There is a Better Way”. The hedge funds’ suggestions come at a time when 56 percent of Puerto Rican children live in poverty and hundreds of teachers have been forced out of work.

Managing Director Raul Bustamente told the AP the decision to close the 24-hour casino follows a 40 percent drop in the use of slot machines over the last decade.

According to Reuters, Centennial was paid by a group of holders of so-called general obligation Puerto Rican debt, including Fir Tree Partners, Brigade Capital Management and Monarch Capital Group.

Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is from Puerto Rico, joins a rally at City Hall Tuesday calling for the feds to step up and help in the island’s fiscal crisis. Combined, they hold $5.2 billion of the U.S. commonwealth’s government-backed bonds.

“These same hedge funds have actively been lobbying Congress to not take action when it comes to Puerto Rico, and that is unconscionable”, she said.

The current situation has drawn comparisons to debt crises in places like Greece and Detroit, and prompted criticism of ongoing U.S. colonial domination on the island. “Over the years, the U.S. has treated Puerto Rico as a laboratory for population control, conducted naval war games on the island nation for possible Middle East interventions, and used it as a pre-NAFTA staging ground for corporate megastores to develop consumer bases and exploit low-wage labor”. Several months ago, the House introduced a bill that would change this, but it hasn’t moved forward.

“We must give them more flexibility to solve the problem”, Bush said Monday. Puerto Rico can not legally declare itself bankrupt because it is a US commonwealth territory. Just like Detroit had that process, maybe Puerto Rico will also need to do the same thing.

The creditors also want Puerto Rico to sell off public properties and increase its collection of sales and property taxes to bring in $3 billion more a year.