Puerto Rico (Yet Another Case of bad finances)

[RevolverRob]

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/29/news...=hp-stack-intl

Puerto Rico can no longer make payments on its $73 billion in debt, according to Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, who warns the island is perilously close to entering a "death spiral"

I have no strong opinions about this, but I wonder if Puerto Rico becoming state 51 is now an inevitability. Puerto Ricans have consistently voted down statehood, and justified it by claiming that they have acceptable self-governance. This is clearly not true. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this territory and what happens in the near and long term with Puerto Rico overall.

I don't have a lot of insights into the government of Puerto Rico - Anyone more qualified care to comment on this situation?

-Rob

[Gadfly]

I think the only real industries on that Island are tourism and crime. What else is there? Unfortunately, the crime drives down the tourism.

They don't want to be a US state? Then let them fend for themselves. That has worked oh so well for the rest of the Caribbean.

[Peally]

Just for discussion do we really want them as a state at all? My only knowledge of the place is the same as Gadfly's: they have crime, tourism and apparently debt, and they'd basically be another totally random middle of nowhere island state like Hawaii.

[Chuck Haggard]

PR becoming a state would be something the Dems would want rather badly.


Nice place to visit, I really like traveling there, but wouldn't want them for a state due to the politics involved.

[Edwin]

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/29/news...=hp-stack-intl



I have no strong opinions about this, but I wonder if Puerto Rico becoming state 51 is now an inevitability. Puerto Ricans have consistently voted down statehood, and justified it by claiming that they have acceptable self-governance. This is clearly not true. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this territory and what happens in the near and long term with Puerto Rico overall.

I don't have a lot of insights into the government of Puerto Rico - Anyone more qualified care to comment on this situation?

-Rob

Where did you get that info about not wanting to become a state? Because they sure as hell did vote to become a state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto...ferendum,_2012

[RoyGBiv]

I spent a lot of time working (think business travel) in PR in the early 90's. It was an excellent place to visit. Great culture, great food, beautiful women, beaches, climate... And it was booming. Seemed that every drug development company, medical device maker and pharmaceutical manufacturer had set up shop there to take advantage of the tax breaks. All that dropped in the crapper in 2006 and the island had not adequately prepared itself nor did it have the leadership in place to rein in spending when the money flow ebbed. Such a waste.

PR is a great example of why we need the tax code scrapped and all the code manipulators voted out.

Good article here

In 1976, Congress added a tax credit that effectively exempted from federal income taxes the profits that U.S. companies attributed to Puerto Rico.

..........

The break was attacked by Republicans and Democrats as too expensive, and as of 2006, it ended. So Medtronic and other companies found a solution: They are avoiding taxes by moving those profits into shell subsidiaries in havens such as the Cayman Islands, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

[Jeep]

While it is clear that PR has been badly governed, I see no reason why they would be better governed if they were a state.

From what I can see there are many states that have been very badly governed. For example, I can see no easy way for Illinois to meet its pension obligations now that its Supreme Court says they can't be changed, and while California right now is getting by on the current strength of technology stocks, and the concomitant increase in capital gains taxes, that won't last forever, and it looks like the California legislature wants to increase permanent spending to take advantage of this short-term revenue blip.

It's the same all over the world. As Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money. That is what is occurring in PR and Greece and soon will hit Illinois (unless they get serious about the problem).

[1slow]

Libtards would love PR to be state 51 more socialist voters.

[TAZ]

I'm in the same boat as some others here. Why exactly do we want another debt laden, resource free island in the middle of nowhere as a state??? Do they have something to offer aside from good looking women and beaches?

[Dagga Boy]

I don't want a place that can get more than 20 million per citizen in debt with nobody noticing.....