When Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, steps down on Aug. 2, his successor will be left with a mountain of unfinished business, including the biggest governmental bankruptcy in United States history and an economy propped up by emergency aid.
The island is about three years into a deeply unpopular restructuring of about $129 billion in debt and unfunded pensions, and there is still no clear resolution in sight. Over the years, the territory’s leaders borrowed $74 billion, largely to balance the budget, and exhausted all the money in the public pension system. The island owes retirees about $55 billion.
The bad fiscal habits have yet to be broken.
The New York Times
By Mary Williams Walsh
July 25, 2019