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  1. #1
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Crisis may cost Puerto Rico 30,000 jobs: governor


    8 hours ago


    MIAMI (AFP) — More than 30,000 jobs are in jeopardy in the US territory of Puerto Rico as the governor warned that he must slash two billion dollars from the budget of a "government in bankruptcy."


    The local government is largest employer in Puerto Rico, a self-governing US possession in the Caribbean with a population of nearly four million.
    Governor Luis Fortuno told Puerto Ricans in a televised address late Tuesday that he encountered a 3.2-billion-dollar budget deficit -- four times larger than expected -- when he took office in January.
    Puerto Ricans must "face the bitter reality of a government in bankruptcy," he said, adding that islanders face "the worst economic and financial crisis ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s."


    He said he ordered across the board budget cuts and an end to government mobile phones, credit cards and vehicles.


    "Our goal is to save two billion dollars a year in government expenses," he said.


    To achieve savings government workers will be offered incentives to resign, and employees with seniority will be given the option to work one day less every other week.


    But if savings are still not met then forced cuts will follow.
    There are 300,000 government jobs in Puerto Rico, which Fortuno said is proportionally the highest in the United States.
    "I cannot anticipate the exact number of employees that will be affected," Fortuno said. "But I'm going to be frank, the number could be significant and I fear it could exceed 30,000 jobs."


    Fortuno warned that if nothing was done, "Puerto Rico would enter an unimaginable economic crisis, much worse than what we have now. If we lose our credit, the government would not be able to meet payroll obligations, pay suppliers or offer basic services."


    Puerto Ricans are US citizens, but cannot vote in US national elections.

  2. #2
    leveled up sook's Avatar
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  3. #3
    Old fogey Bender's Avatar
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    us gov't should Stimulate them with a few billion...

  4. #4
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    us gov't should Stimulate them with a few billion...
    We did, last year.

  5. #5
    Old fogey Bender's Avatar
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    jesus, I didn't even know that... I was just joking up above....

    just shows that it's a never ending vicious circle.

  6. #6
    Spur-taaaa TDMVPDPOY's Avatar
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    population of 4m, gets 3.2b handouts from govt every year? hahahhahahhaa fkn daylight robbery at its best without even attempting.....

    these clowns should use that money and invest into infrastructure, state owned companys and start buying into another countrys infrastructure and live of the dividents/profits it generates........aka singapore.

  7. #7
    Veteran
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    America is bankrupt, but nobody admits it.

  8. #8
    Scrumtrulescent
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    America is bankrupt, but nobody admits it.
    That's the beauty about the United States federal government. You're never bankrupt when there's always more money that can be borrowed. It's not like We The People are ever going to step in to put an end to it.

  9. #9
    Damns (Given): 0 Blake's Avatar
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    puerto pobre

  10. #10
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    That's the beauty about the United States federal government. You're never bankrupt when there's always more money that can be borrowed. It's not like We The People are ever going to step in to put an end to it.
    You're not bankrupt until your creditors find out. Have they?

  11. #11
    Cogito Ergo Sum LnGrrrR's Avatar
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    That's the beauty about the United States federal government. You're never bankrupt when YOU HAVE LARGE AMOUNTS OF NUCLEAR BOMBS. It's not like We The People are ever going to step in to put an end to it.
    Fixed.

  12. #12
    Scrumtrulescent
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    How does the saying go? Nukes and a kind word will get you a bigger credit line than just a kind word?

  13. #13
    Veteran temujin's Avatar
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    population of 4m, gets 3.2b handouts from govt every year? hahahhahahhaa fkn daylight robbery at its best without even attempting.....

    these clowns should use that money and invest into infrastructure, state owned companys and start buying into another countrys infrastructure and live of the dividents/profits it generates........aka singapore.
    There is another little country which gets 3 Billions each year.

  14. #14
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    UBS shared the pain with their customers:

    UBS had a good thing going in Puerto Rico. The Swiss bank served as an adviser to the commonwealth’s Employees Retirement System, led the underwriting of a $2.9 billion bond issue for the pension agency in 2008, and then stuffed half of those bonds into a family of closed-end mutual funds it sold exclusively to customers on the island. It collected fees at every step.


    Now, with the U.S. territory in the downward spiral of a government debt crisis, it’s all coming apart for UBS, long the biggest retail brokerage on the island. After UBS helped the government dig itself into a deeper hole and put island customers on the hook for the losses that followed, its Puerto Rico saga has become a cautionary tale of how risks can multiply.


    Angry customers have filed hundreds of arbitration claims with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. They’re seeking more than $1.1 billion in damages from UBS after huge losses in the tax-free bond funds, sold as high-income investments that would preserve their capital, and in the bonds themselves. Three of UBS Puerto Rico’s five offices have closed since 2010, and nearly 60 of the unit’s 140 financial advisers have departed. The bank’s retail brokerage market share on the island has dropped to 33 percent from 48 percent over that period.
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...sis-to-clients

  15. #15
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Putting bonds UBS had underwritten into funds UBS managed would have been forbidden by the Investment Company Act of 1940—if the funds were sold on the mainland. But Congress exempted Puerto Rico when the law was enacted. Bloomberg Markets first reported on UBS’s activities on the island in 2009.

  16. #16
    Veteran hater's Avatar
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    Island ppls are usually lazy. But Puerto Ricans take it to the extreme

  17. #17
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    I wouldn't know. Do tell...

  18. #18
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    “In a legal brief filed before the United States Supreme Court on December 23, 2015, the United States Government abruptly reversed course, and took the position that the Cons ution and laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico do not emanate from the people of Puerto Rico after all. The brief takes the position that, under the United States Cons ution, Congress has no power to authorize the people of a territory to engage in an exercise of popular sovereignty by democratically enacting their own Cons ution, which then serves as the ultimate source of their laws. Under this view, there can be no such thing as meaningful self-government by the people of Puerto Rico under the U.S. Cons ution.”

    – Excerpt from a letter sent December 26 by the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro J. Garcia-Padilla, to the United Nations Secretary General, reporting legal developments in Washington over the cons utional status of Puerto Rico – an issue that is before the Justices in two cases during the current term of the court. The letter could lead to a legal duty for the U.S. government to defend its current view of that status to the international body, as well as before the Supreme Court. (Read Full Letter Here.)



    “The General Assembly recognizes that, when choosing their cons utional and international status, the people of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have effectively exercised their right to self-determination….In the framework of their Cons ution and of the compact agreed upon with the United States of America, the people of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have been invested with attributes of political sovereignty which clearly identify the status of self-government attained by the Puerto Rican people as that of an autonomous political en y.”

    – Partial text of the UN General Assembly Resolution 748, adopted on November 27, 1953, in response to notice by the United States government that it would no longer file required reports with the UN Secretary General under Article 73 of the UN Charter. That provision requires countries to keep the UN informed on conditions in territories which they hold that are not self-governing. The U.S government withdrew from that obligation by a memo dated April 20, 1953, saying that the adoption of a new cons ution gave Puerto Rico “the full measure of self-government.”



    “The United States did not characterize Puerto Rico as a sovereign. Instead, it noted that Puerto Rico had become self-governing while having no independent and separate existence from the United States.”

    – Excerpt from a footnote in the federal government’s new legal brief filed last week in the Supreme Court opposing recognition of sovereignty for Puerto Rico, commenting on the position it had taken in the 1953 message to the UN.
    http://blog.cons utioncenter.org/2...erning-status/

  19. #19
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Given how vital it is to have that cons utional question settled, it is remarkable that only now has it reached the Supreme Court and gained the Justices’ agreement to sort it out, at least in part. One case that the court will hear in January involved whether Puerto Rico prosecutors can charge individuals with the same crime for which they have already been convicted under charges filed in federal court. To be able, cons utionally, to stage its own independent prosecution for the same offense, Puerto Rico must be treated as a sovereign en y. Otherwise, the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits sequential trials.


    The other case, growing out of the island’s deepening crisis over its public debt, is asking the Justices to settle whether Puerto Rico can be treated less favorably than state governments when they seek to restructure their debt under federal bankruptcy law. (Congress debated doing something about the debt situation late in this year, but then decided to put off any action until March. By then, the Supreme Court will be fully engaged with the debt case pending there.)
    Although each case at the court has a fairly narrow legal focus, both have led to a fundamental debate about just what cons utional status Puerto Rico is to have in 2016.

  20. #20
    Veteran
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    Island ppls are usually lazy. But Puerto Ricans take it to the extreme
    What a generalization. I take exception to that comment - we're not lazy, we just go at a different pace than others :-)

  21. #21
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Obama Appoints Social Security Critic to Fix Puerto Rico’s Budget


    Andrew Biggs, an American Enterprise Ins ute resident scholar and architect of conservative efforts to cut and privatize Social Security, has been named by President Obama to a seven-member fiscal oversight board for the debt-ridden U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. That board, which will work out restructuring for over $70 billion in debt, has widespread authority to ins ute additional austerity on the island’s citizens, including potential reductions in public pensions. And Biggs appears to be the only member of the board that has significant experience with social insurance.


    Under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act signed into law in June, the fiscal oversight board will be effectively in charge of the island’s finances, usurping its democratically elected government. The oversight board is tasked with balancing Puerto Rico’s budget and pursuing all avenues to pay off its massive debt, including cuts to the island’s education, police, and health care systems. It can sell off Puerto Rican assets, lower the island’s minimum wage, order layoffs, and enforce a ban on public employee strikes. Only as a last resort can the island obtain court approval for a debt restructuring agreement, and negotiate with creditors, which include several “vulture funds” that scooped up Puerto Rican debt at a discount in the hopes of a big payday.
    https://theintercept.com/2016/08/31/...-ricos-budget/

  22. #22
    Veteran InRareForm's Avatar
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    Good time to buy house or apartment there

  23. #23
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    Good time to buy house or apartment there
    I wonder what their beaches are like? Dh says he'll go anywhere with me for retirement but must have excellent internet connection and be near to a mailing facility so he can order whatever from Amazon A house on the beach in Jamaica sounds nice to me but doesn't qualify.

  24. #24
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
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    Good time to buy house or apartment there
    I laughed, then I cried.

  25. #25
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    The Law Strangling Puerto Rico

    the United States needs to do more. It needs to suspend the Jones Act in Puerto Rico.

    Section 27 of this law decreed that only American ships could carry goods and passengers from one United States port to another.

    In addition, every ship must be built, crewed and owned by American citizens.

    Under the law, any foreign registry vessel that enters Puerto Rico must pay

    punitive tariffs, fees and taxes, which are passed on to the Puerto Rican consumer.

    The foreign vessel has one other option: It can reroute to Jacksonville, Fla., where all the goods will be transferred to an American vessel, then shipped to Puerto Rico where — again — all the rerouting costs are passed through to the consumer.

    Thanks to the law, the price of goods from the United States mainland is at least double that in neighboring islands,

    the cost of living in Puerto Rico is 13 percent higher than in 325 urban areas elsewhere in the United States,

    even though per capita income in Puerto Rico is about $18,000,

    close to half that of Mississippi, the poorest of all 50 states.

    This is a shakedown, a mob protection racket, with Puerto Rico a captive market.

    A 2012 report by two University of Puerto Rico economists found that the Jones Act caused a $17 billion loss to the island’s economy from 1990 through 2010.

    Other studies have estimated the Jones Act’s damage to Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska to be $2.8 billion to $9.8 billion per year.

    According to all these reports,

    if the Jones Act did not exist, then neither would the public debt of Puerto Rico.

    Three American territories are exempt from the Jones Act, including the United States Virgin Islands.

    https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/2...jones-act.html


    Last edited by boutons_deux; 09-27-2017 at 09:31 AM.

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