Closer To Home Than Greece, The Rich Port Isn't

Puerto Rico has also just announced it has run out of other people's money.

Powerline: Puerto Rico Goes Broke

Puerto Rico has also just retained Judge Rhodes, the judge who took Detroit through its Chapter 9 bankrupty in the matter.

The Detroit News: Rhodes on Puerto Rico: ‘It’s exactly like Detroit’.

I'm not sure if Rhodes means that Puerto Rico did itself in by a corrupt Democrat administration that squandered its funds through waste, fraud, incompetence and by paying the ruling party's cronies for contracts for in excess of the value received and sweet heart deals with Unions in return for political support. To be charitable to Puerto Rico, perhaps he just meant Puerto Rico's government was both borrowing too much and massively overspending beyond its capacity to repay.

It's the same, except of course Puerto Rico's debt is 4 times bigger than Detroit and there is both no surrounding state to bail it out as occurred for Detroit and no Chapter of the Bankruptcy Code to provide for the bankruptcy of a United States Commonwealth.

Perhaps Spain will offer to buy the island back in exchange for paying off the debt. That is of course assuming Spain doesn't join Greece in running out of other people's money, due to its debts, as it's debt loading on a per capita basis actually matches Puerto Rico's.

May you live in interesting times was indeed a curse and not a blessing.