Author Archives: admin

A basic question involving Puerto Rico’s debt crisis needs answering:  How did this island of 3.5 million residents create a $72.2 billion fiscal catastrophe when the government was supposedly constrained by a constitutional balanced budget requirement and a debt service … Continue reading →

With reference to Joseph Stiglitz and Mark Medish’s “What the United States Owes Puerto Rico,” op-ed, Aug 14): Hawaii is also subject to the Jones Act but has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. On the other hand, … Continue reading →

With reference to “Puerto Rico on the brink of debt default” (Aug. 3, 2015), it cannot be overemphasized that the bonds of the Public Finance Corporation on which default is set to occur are “appropriation bonds”. As such, they are … Continue reading →

Paul Krugman is right that Puerto Rico is not Greece.(“America’s Un-Greek Tragedies,” column, Aug. 3)  But he doesn’t mention several important reasons this is the case. One is that Puerto Rico has far more room to tax the top half … Continue reading →

Regarding the July 10 front-page article “A crisis with roots in Washington”: The Puerto Rico government’s “outsize share of the overall workforce” is a misleading indicator of excess public spending. Per capita, Puerto Rico government employment ranks 37th among all … Continue reading →

Regarding Daniel Hanson’s “Profligate Puerto Rico on the Brink” (op-ed, June 30): As a percentage of gross domestic product, combined commonwealth and local spending for 2011 (the most recent year with full data) was approximately 11%. Using data from the … Continue reading →

El ilustre experto en administración de empresas, Peter F. Drucker, dijo en su libro “Managing Oneself”: Not enough people have even one first-rate skill or knowledge area, but all of us have an infinite number of areas in which we … Continue reading →

Regarding Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s “Puerto Rico’s Debt Relief Gambit” (Americas, May 4): The fact that the proposed amendment to the U.S. bankruptcy code would operate retroactively to bondholders of Puerto Rico state-owned entities is neither unfair nor unusual. In fact, … Continue reading →