Moody's Investor Service said yesterday that Puerto Rico is likely to default on at least some of its $355 million in debt payments due Dec. 1, citing growing liquidity pressures, Reuters reported. The U.S. commonwealth, facing around $70 billion in total debt, is struggling to breathe life into a stalled economy with a roughly 45 percent poverty rate.
Puerto Rico in Distress
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The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) needs to get insurance companies that guarantee a portion of the utility’s debt against default to endorse a conditional restructuring agreement by Thursday to avoid the risk of the deal with bondholders falling apart, Bloomberg reported yesterday. If MBIA Inc., Assured Guaranty Ltd. and Syncora Guarantee Inc.
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson endorsed statehood for Puerto Rico at a Sunday campaign event on the island, CNN reported yesterday. "In a Carson administration, I will leave no stone unturned in my efforts to secure this important step in Puerto Rico's history — establishing Estado 51," said the retired neurosurgeon.
The Obama administration has devised a plan to help rescue Puerto Rico from its insolvency and, according to a report in The Hill today, it's more sizzle than steak, with no chance of enactment.