When Alejandro García Padilla, the governor of Puerto Rico, announced on June 29th that its $72 billion public debt was unsustainable, he warned that the only alternative to a comprehensive restructuring “would be the unilateral and unplanned non-payment of obligations,” according to a commentary in The Economist. It would be a drastic step for the autonomous American territory, which the United States regards as a commonwealth. Mr García Padilla was presumably hoping to intimidate Puerto Rico’s recalcitrant creditors into accepting their inevitable losses, thus averting disaster. Just a month later, the worst-case scenario has started to become a reality. Read the full commentary.