Puerto Rico has triggered the biggest municipal default in US history

The U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico has apparently stiffed a $58 million payment with a paltry $600,000.

Looks like a Greek style meltdown.

Pegged as biggest municipal default in U.S. history.

And everybody thought it would be a State to default this big.

Seems they are big on some of the same problems that are plaguing the States and the Federal government.

Big Government = Big Fat Failure

Big Phumble-Phlop

The Bankers are on the hunt and smell the fresh blood of failure.


Puerto Rico has triggered the biggest municipal default in US history

Puerto Rico has triggered the biggest municipal default in US history, risking years of bitter legal warfare with creditors and an austerity "death spiral" with echoes of Greece.

The island commonwealth finally ran out of money on Monday after a desperate effort to stay afloat, missing a final deadline for a $58 million payment — handing over just $628,000.

Well Now What?

a reply to: xuenchen

Saw this on the evening news last night. They will get away with it. We need them far more than they need us right now, IMO.

a reply to: xuenchen

What now?

Time to end the scam of private central banks and private fractional reserve banking, which creates magic money out of thin air. Then loans this imaginary money to the world with the expectation of getting real money in return.

Quite simple really.

Add - this has nothing to do with big government, bought and paid for government yes. But the size of the government has nothing to do with private banks loaning money they don't have.

a reply to: Isurrender73

I use "Big" government in the context of the Authoritarian levels.

Time to follow Icelands lead and takeover private banking in PR. It has really worked well for Iceland allowing them a quick recovery.

S & F

a reply to: AlaskanDad

IIRC Iceland didn't take over he banks - they "just" let them fail and the investors who took the risks suffered the losses??

most of the trigger for this is hedge funds that are demanding full payment of debt they bought at discounted levels - much as happened in Argentina.

it is not really a fault of "big government" - certainly there is an aspect of increased spending where there seems little actual justification (eg education as per the first link above) - but PR Government spending as a % of GDP has been much less than many sovereign states ove the last 25 years.

This could be a plot to "force" a Statehood vote.

Look at all the Democrat votes just sitting there wasting away !!

A perfect crisis.



51 gets it done.

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

I have read about the credit river decision case, apparently a guy argued successfully that the banks didn't truely hold our house notes because they create money from thin air. Good luck citing the case though

educationcenter2000.com...

a reply to: Reallyfolks

not sure what your point is sorry??

Credit River was overturned pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, Hedge funds tell Puerto Rico: lay off teachers and close schools to pay us back.

It should be noted that the island paid $400 million plus on it's debts but specifically didn't pay the $58 million debt because that debt is owned by the people of Puerto Rico. The government alluded that this was because 'they were less likely to sue.'

Puerto Rico, more afraid of the banks than of their own population.

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

I know it was, but if a bank admits it creates money from thin air? How can they loan and hold your house note for money that didn't exist?. Over turned. Ok . There is still a problem with the whole way it operates

a reply to: Reallyfolks

the myth that banks create "money from thin air" is a staple of tax and finance conspiracy theorists, and has no basis in the real world - even old world socialists know it is a myth.

Let's try to stick to reality for PR's problems please??

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

Fractional reserve banking is a myth? By all means do tell?

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

Actually come right down to it in a fiat monetary system what is money actually valued at beyond imagination?

a reply to: Reallyfolks

Of course fractional reserve isnt' a myth - banks making money out of thin air is a myth.

And fiat currency relies upon the willingness of people to accept it as payment, backed up by government making it the only way to pay debts owed to them and the only way they pay debts they owe.

if you want an in-depth discussion of banking conspiracies then you should probably start a new thread.

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

So fractional reserve banking isn't a myth then it's also not a myth that money out of thin air. If you only have 10 percent of the money you should have on hand then where exactly is the other 90% coming from?

A lot of jobs are leaving Puerto Rico and that is part of the problem. During the middle to end of the 20th century, many manufacturing firms either moved to PR or opened manufacturing plants in PR due to the low level of regulation, cheap labor, etc. Now that it is becoming more and more expensive to operate in PR, manufacturing firms are moving out by the dozens which is leaving thousands out of work.


This happens all over the world every couple decades... classical negative effect of globalization and offshoring. Companies simply chase around the cheap labor. They move into low cost areas to operate, pour lots of money into the economy via taxes and employing thousands of people, the area becomes more civilized & more regulated, once it gets too expensive to operate and profits drop they dump everything and move off to the next area.

originally posted by: Reallyfolks
a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

So fractional reserve banking isn't a myth then it's also not a myth that money out of think air. If you only have 10 percent of the money you should have on hand then where exactly is the other 90% coming from?

Sigh - there is no 90%

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

Sigh..there is
Let's walk through a hypothetical example to show how the act of bank lending creates new money. Say that person A has $100 dollars in cash and decides to deposit this money into a bank. The bank has a reserve ratio of 10%, and so it must keep $10 in reserves but can loan out the other $90. Let's say the bank makes a $90 loan to person B.

Time to stop and recap what just happened. Person A originally had $100 cash and consequently $100 worth of purchasing power. When person A deposits this money into a bank, they still have $100 in purchasing power. The bank then loaned out the $90 that it was not required to hold as reserves and this money went to person B. Now person B has $90 worth of purchasing power, and person A still has $100 of purchasing power. Money was just created.

In the micro economy of our example, $100 in original purchasing power has just turned into $190 worth of purchasing power. The amount of money in the economy that is able to chase goods and services just increased as a result of bank lending.

Taking this forward another step, let's say person B pays this $90 to person C, who then deposits it into a bank. This could be the same bank or a different one, it doesn't matter. The bank must keep $9 of this new deposit (remember 10% of $90 is $9) and can loan out the remaining $81. If the bank lends out the $81, the money supply in the economy grows again. What started as $100 that was available to chase goods and services has grown into $271 of purchasing power ($100 + $90 + $81).

This process can continue over and over as the money is redeposited into banks to be loaned again. If this process continues to its maximum, the original $100 can grow into $1000. Notice that this relationship between the initial deposit and the maximum growth is a factor of the inverse of the reserve ratio. A reserve ratio of 10% allows a deposit to grow into 10 times as much money. What we have just described is the "money multiplier" model. An initial sum of money has "multiplied" through bank lending.

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul
No it is not a myth. This is a well known fact among most of us here on ATS.
Nice try, but you are wrong. The FED does indeed create money out of thin air when they print currency, and let's not forget that most of the 'money' is electronic with no currency or paper to back it up.
The only think keeping the US dollar from collapse is the oil trade, the petro dollar.