Home » Posts tagged 'puerto rico' (Page 4)
Tag Archives: puerto rico
Puerto Rico Blackout Enters Second Day – Entire Island Of 3.5 Million People Without Power
Puerto Rico Blackout Enters Second Day – Entire Island Of 3.5 Million People Without Power
Perhaps even worse, the outage caused numerous fires across the island as a result of malfunctioning generators, including at the upscale Vanderbilt hotel in the popular tourist area of Condado and at the mayor’s office in the northern coastal town of Catano.
While Puerto Rico’s Governor Padilla and the utility’s CEO, Javier Quintana, have said they expect service to be restored by this morning, many Puerto Ricans are dubious saying that the economic slump has affected the government’s ability to maintain basic infrastructure. According to the Wall Street Journal, hundreds of people took to social media to criticize the Electric Power Authority, noting they already pay bills on average twice that of the U.S. mainland.
The fire apparently started at this sub-station in Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames but the damage has still not been repaired leaving millions without power.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Puerto Rico Defaults On $2 Billion In Debt Payments
Puerto Rico Defaults On $2 Billion In Debt Payments
As expected, Puerto Rico will default on about $2 billion in debt payments Friday, including $780 million in constitutionally-backed general obligation bonds, as governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla has issued an executive order authorizing the suspension of payments. In addition, Garcia Padilla also declared states of emergency at the island’s biggest public pension – the Commonwealth’s Employee Retirement System – which is more than 99% underfunded, as well as the University of Puerto Rico and other agencies Reuters reports. The default will mark the first time a US territory has failed to pay on its general obligation bonds.
“Under these circumstances, these executive orders protect the limited resources available to the agencies listed in these orders and prevents that these can be seized by creditors, leaving Puerto Ricans without basic services,” Garcia Padilla’s administration said in a statement.
The suspension of payments comes just as the Senate rushed a bill to President Obama that was signed on Thursday, and the bill will now allow Puerto Rico to access a bankruptcy-like debt restructuring process for its roughly $70 billion in debt. As Bloombergexplains, the next phase will now be for the US appointed control board to begin the restructuring negotiation process. The step allows Garcia Padilla to use cash that would otherwise go to investors to avert cuts to schools, policing and health care that Garcia Padilla said would extract a heavy toll on the island where nearly half of the 3.5 million residents live in poverty.
While creditors will now be left to battle it out in the courts, the default will leave large insurers of Puerto Rico’s bonds on the hook for payments. As CNBC reports, Assured Guaranty, Ambac and National, a wholly owned subsidiary of MBIA, collectively have more than $800 million in exposure to the total payments due Friday.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Bondholders Stunned As Puerto Rico Finds $4.4 Billion In Outstanding Debt “Unconstitutional”
Bondholders Stunned As Puerto Rico Finds $4.4 Billion In Outstanding Debt “Unconstitutional”
As it turns out, on the day the House announced that it planned on taking up the Puerto Rico bill next week, a 17 member audit commission found that two debt issues worth $4.4 billion of the $72 billion in debt outstanding were unconstitutional.
Said otherwise, the government may now just declare the bonds invalid. It’s a handy development for governor Padilla, since the two debt issues were expected to default on July 1. Also helpful is the fact that it would be one less item for Padilla to worry about since he proposed a budget for 2016-2017 that provides for only $209 million of the $1.4 billion in current debt service cost.
As MarketWatch explains
An audit report published on Thursday suggests that debt-laden Puerto Rico may be able to void some of its borrowing because politicians exceeded constitutional debt limits and their own authority.
The report, shared with MarketWatch, states that some of Puerto Rico’s debt may have been issued illegally, allowing the government to potentially declare the bonds invalid and courts to then decide that creditors’ claims are unenforceable. The scope of the audit report, issued by the island’s Public Credit Comprehensive Audit Commission, covers the two most recent full-faith-and-credit debt issues of the commonwealth: Puerto Rico’s 2014 $3.5 billion general-obligation bond offering and a $900 million issuance in 2015 of Tax Refund Anticipation Notes to a syndicate of banks led by J.P Morgan.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Puerto Rico Says Will Default Tomorrow, Begs Congress For Help “Or Else Crisis Will Get Worse”
Puerto Rico Says Will Default Tomorrow, Begs Congress For Help “Or Else Crisis Will Get Worse”
- *PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR SAYS WON’T PAY DEBT TOMORROW
- *PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR SAYS ISLAND WON’T PAY DEBT MONDAY
- *PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR: GOVERNMENT SIGNED MORATORIUM BILL YESTERD
- *PUERTO RICO NEEDS DEAL W/ CREDITORS AND/OR CONGRESS: GARCIA
And of course, demands a bailout…
- *PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR CALLS ON U.S. CONGRESS, PAUL RYAN FOR HELP
And then threatens…
- *CRISIS WILL GET WORSE IF U.S. CONGRESS DOESN’T HELP: GARCIA
- *PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR CONCLUDES REMARKS TO COMMONWEALTH
As we detailed earlier, It’s D-Day in Puerto Rico.As Bloomberg reports, investors are finding little comfort in the Puerto Rico Government Development Bank’s efforts to strike a last-ditch agreement with creditors to soften the blow of a default this weekend. The bonds that mature today (May 1st) have crashed to just 20c (disastrously below the 36-cent recovery rate the commonwealth proposed in March).
It appears investors are not buying what Puerto Rico is selling and prefer to dump the bonds than hold out in hope of a ‘deal’…
A default on the $422 million due today is “virtually certain,” S&P Global Ratings said April 11.
No matter which route Puerto Rico takes, credit-rating companies see a default as inevitable. Moody’s Investors Service analysts said last week that any non-payment, even if it’s agreed to by creditors, constitutes a default in their eyes. S&P Global Ratings said a distressed-debt exchange or temporarily withholding interest is synonymous to default.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Governor Of Puerto Rico Set To Impose Capital Controls
Governor Of Puerto Rico Set To Impose Capital Controls
Yesterday, in the latest plot twist surrounding the inevitable Puerto Rico default, we observed that after the commonwealth island’s Senate passed a surprising bill to impose a debt moratorium on any future debt repayment, its bonds – predictably – tumbled.
We also noted that the legislation addressed the Government Development Bank, or GDB, which is facing speculation that it’ll lapse into insolvency. The bank’s receivership process, liquidity and reserve requirements and payment obligations would be suspended indefinitely, according to an analyst’s read of the bill, which also seeks to split the entity into a “good bank” and “bad bank.”
Hedge funds holding debt in the GDB sued on Monday to stop the bank from returning deposits to local government agencies as it faces a growing cash shortage. The funds, which include affiliates of Brigade Capital Management, Claren Road Asset Management and Solus Alternative Asset Management, accused the bank of seeking to “prop up” local agencies at the expense of other creditors. The GDB has a $422 million debt-service payment due May 1.The Government Development Bank serves the dual purpose of providing financial support to local governments and acting as a financial adviser to the commonwealth. The funds, which say they hold a “substantial amount” of almost $3.75 billion in the bank’s outstanding debt, blamed the entity’s deteriorating condition on a “hopeless conflict” between loyalties to Puerto Rico and to creditors.
Fast forward to today, when Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla signed a measure into law Wednesday that would enable him to declare a moratorium on the commonwealth’s debt payments, mere hours after it cleared the Legislature amid concerns of securing enough support in the lower chamber and a full-court press by creditor lobbyists demanding changes to the bill.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Zika Virus Threatens “Disaster In Rio” Olympics As WHO Declares Global Emergency
Zika Virus Threatens “Disaster In Rio” Olympics As WHO Declares Global Emergency
From the initial discovery in the heart of Ugandan forest darknessto mysterious genetically-modified Mosquitoes in Brazil, the newest threat to human health (most notably pregnant women) is the ominous-sounding Zika virus. The epidemic is spreading from its epicenter in Brazil – threatening disaster at the Olympics with “female athletes to consider participation “very carefully”“, to Colombia (with 2100 pregant women infected), and further north in America with CDC confirming 6 cases in Texas.
As we previously introduced, The World Health Organization is convening an Emergency Committee under International Health Regulations today, concerning the Zika virus ‘explosive’ spread throughout the Americas. The virus reportedly has the potential to reach pandemic proportions — possibly around the globe. But understandingwhy this outbreak happened is vital to curbing it. As the WHO statement said:
“A causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth malformations and neurological syndromes … is strongly suspected. [These links] have rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika, from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions.“WHO is deeply concerned about this rapidly evolving situation for 4 main reasons: the possible association of infection with birth malformations and neurological syndromes; the potential for further international spread given the wide geographical distribution of the mosquito vector; the lack of population immunity in newly affected areas; and the absence of vaccines, specific treatments, and rapid diagnostic tests […]
“The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty.”
Zika seemingly exploded out of nowhere. Though it was first discovered in 1947, cases only sporadically occurred throughout Africa and southern Asia.
In 2007, the first case was reported in the Pacific. In 2013, a smattering of small outbreaks and individual cases were officially documented in Africa and the western Pacific. They also began showing up in the Americas. In May 2015, Brazil reported its first case of Zika virus — and the situation changed dramatically.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Puerto Rico “Generously” Offers To Repay 54 Cents On The Dollar To Creditors Owed $70 Billion
Puerto Rico “Generously” Offers To Repay 54 Cents On The Dollar To Creditors Owed $70 Billion
Height Securities’ Daniel Hanson is “deeply skeptical” about the viability of Puerto Rico’s proposal for restructuring the island’s $70 billion in debt.
Hanson, in a note out late last week, said Governor Alejandro Padilla was “significantly unlikely” to present a “credible” plan and that the commonwealth’s offer to creditors may be “laughably low.”
As a reminder, Puerto Rico defaulted on some of its non-GO debt last month, presaging more missed payments this year as creditors come calling in May and July.
So far, the island has been able to avoid a messy default on its GO debt by utilizing a revenue “clawback” mechanism that effectively allows the commonwealth to divert money earmarked for non-GO debt, a move decried by the monolines.
In December, the market thought there might be a light at the end of the tunnel when creditors and the island’s power utility managed to get the bond insurers to go along with a $8 billion restructuring for PREPA, but that fell apart a week ago when lawmakers failed to vote on a new tax. Ultimately, the deadline to pass the bill was extended to February 16, but the fraugh negotiations underscore how precarious the situation has become.
On Monday, we got our first look at Puerto Rico’s opening salvo in what’s likely to be protracted battle to tackle the entire debt burden.
“Puerto Rico on Monday announced a major exchange offer to creditors that could reduce its debt by about $23 billion, the opening salvo in efforts to resolve the island’s crippling $70 billion debt crisis,” Reuters reports, adding that “the new plan would reduce a $49.2 billion chunk of Puerto Rico’s debt by about 46 percent, to $26.5 billion, by offering creditors payout reductions under a new, so-called “base bond” with better legal protections.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Puerto Rico Is Greece, & These 5 States Are Next To Go
Puerto Rico Is Greece, & These 5 States Are Next To Go
Wilbur Ross discusses Puerto Rico’s debt struggles and where it goes from here…
But, as JPMorgan details, Muni risk is on the rise for US states, but broad generalizations do not apply (in other words, these five states are ‘screwed’)…
The direct indebtedness of US states (excluding revenue bonds) is $500 billion. However, bonds are just one part of the picture: states have another trillion in future obligations related to pension and retiree healthcare. In the summer of 2014, we conducted a deep-dive analysis of US states, incorporating bonds, pension obligations and retiree healthcare obligations. After reviewing over 300 Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports from different states, we pulled together an assessment of each state’s total debt service relative to its tax collections, incorporating the need to pay down underfunded pension and retiree healthcare obligations.
While there are five states with significant challenges (Illinois, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Kentucky) , the majority of states have debt service-to-revenue ratios that are more manageable.
As a brief summary, we computed the ratio of debt, pension and retiree healthcare payments to state revenues. The blue bars show what states are currently paying. The orange bars show this ratio assuming that states pay what they owe on a full-accrual basis, assuming a 30-year term for amortizing unfunded pension and retiree healthcare obligations, and assuming a 6% return on pension plan assets.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Puerto Rico To Default On Some Bonds January 1 – Live Feed
Puerto Rico To Default On Some Bonds January 1 – Live Feed
- PUERTO RICO SAYS IT WILL DEFAULT ON SOME DEBT DUE JAN. 1
- PUERTO RICO TO MISS $1.4 MILLION DUE ON PFC BONDS DUE JAN. 1
- PUERTO RICO TO MISS $35.9 MILLION DUE ON PRIFA BONDS
- PUERTO RICO TO MAKE JAN. 1 GENERAL OBLIGATION DEBT PAYMENT
Nearly $1 billion comes due on Friday, some $330 million of which is GO debt. Because a full payment is next to impossible, Padilla must decide who gets paid and who doesn’t. Live feed:
And the reaction in the monolines:
* * *
Background
In what’s starting to feel a bit like the Greek saga that unfolded over the summer, Puerto Rico is facing another “D-Day” on January 1 when nearly $1 billion is due to creditors.
For those unfamiliar with the story, the commonwealth is struggling to crawl from under a debt pile that sums to about $70 billion but has thus far been unable to wrench concessions from Congress on restructuring in bankruptcy.
Earlier this month, the island struck a deal with the monolines that will let a previously agreed restructuring for around $8 billion in PREPA debt go ahead, and while some hope that could serve as a kind of template for the rest of Puerto Rico’s obligations, analysts and government officials alike think that’s unlikely given the complexity involved.
On December 1, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla used a revenue clawback mechanism in order to make a $354 million payment. The end-around effectively allowed Padilla to divert funds from other agencies that have issued bonds in order ensure the government could make good on its GO debt. A default on the GO portion (around $330 million) of what comes due on Friday would trigger a wave of messy litigation and is a situation Padilla wants to avoid at all costs.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Puerto Rico’s Debt Trap
Puerto Rico’s Debt Trap
WASHINGTON, DC – The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico – the largest United States “territory” – is broke, and a human calamity is unfolding there. Unless a constructive course of political action is found in 2016, Puerto Rican migration to the 50 states will rival the scale of the 1930s Dust Bowl exodus from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and other climate-devastated states.
With public debt service (principal plus interest) projected to reach nearly 40% of government revenue in 2016, Puerto Rico needs a new set of economic policies. But austerity will not work; this must be an investment-led recovery, with official measures oriented toward boosting growth by reducing the cost of doing business.
The question is whether Puerto Rico will have that option. Much of its $73 billion debt has been issued by government corporations. But, though federal law allows such municipal debt to be restructured under Chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code in all 50 states, this does not apply to US territories like Puerto Rico. As a result, a protracted series of confusing legal battles and selective defaults looms. The cost of essential infrastructure services – electricity, water, sewers, and transportation – will go up while quality declines.
One response has been to demand further belt-tightening, for example, in the form of wage reductions and healthcare cuts. But residents of Puerto Rico are also US citizens and they vote with their feet – the population has fallen from 3.9 million to 3.5 million in recent years as talented and energetic people have moved to Florida, Texas, and other parts of the mainland.
The more creditors insist on lower living standards and higher taxes, the more the tax base will simply leave the island – causing bondholders’ losses to rise. Disorganized defaults by public corporations will make it hard for any part of the private credit system to function.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Puerto Rico Is About To Default: Your Complete Guide To An Island Debt Debacle
Puerto Rico Is About To Default: Your Complete Guide To An Island Debt Debacle
Last week, we brought you the latest from Puerto Rico’s debt debacle. The commonwealth is desperately trying to restructure some $72 billion in debt while staring down a $354 million bond payment due on December 1.
As we discussed at length on Friday, some $270 million of what’s due next week is GO debt guaranteed by the National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. Defaulting on that is bad news and as Moody’s warned earlier this month, a missed payment on the commonwealth’s highest priority obligations “would likely trigger legal action from creditors, commencing a potentially drawn-out process absent swift federal intervention.”
Make no mistake, federal intervention is likely to be anything but “swift.”
A Senate judiciary committee headed by Iowa Republican Charles Grassley will meet on December 1 to discuss a legislative proposal to assist the Padilla government, but it’s hard to imagine that a decision will be made in time to avert at least a partial default.
Ultimately, the decision will be between paying bondholders and ensuring that the government can continue to provide public services, and just as Greece prioritized pensions over IMF payments last summer, Padilla isn’t likely to sacrifice the public interest at the altar of the island’s debtors.
So, as the clock ticks, we bring you the following helpful guide courtesy of Bloomberg who has made a “list of the island’s debt, how much is outstanding, when major monthly payments are due, and the source of funds that back the securities.”
* * *
- Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp.: $15.2 billion. The bonds, known by the Spanish acronym Cofinas, are repaid from dedicated sales-tax revenue. A $6.2 billion portion of the debt, called senior-lien, is repaid first. The remaining $9 billion, called subordinate-lien, get second dibs. $1.2 million of interest is due in February and again in May. Senior Cofinas maturing in 2040 last traded for an average yield of 9.5 percent, while subordinate ones yielded 18 percent.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Puerto Rico Faces “Public Unrest” As Cash Crunch May Leave Government Workers Unpaid
Puerto Rico Faces “Public Unrest” As Cash Crunch May Leave Government Workers Unpaid
Heavily indebted Puerto Rico was due to meet with representatives of its creditors on Friday in a desperate attempt to forge ahead with a plan to restructure some $72 billion in debt. No offer is expected to be made at the meetings in New York, but the commonwealth’s Government Development Bank says it hopes to provide creditors’ advisors with greater clarity on “the proposed restructuring process,” which GDB says “is a comprehensive plan that will benefit all parties while supporting the creation of a sustainable path forward.”
As Reuters notes, “creditors have been resistant to cuts to their repayment, insisting that Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla’s administration do more to curb spending, boost government efficiency and promote economic growth.”
The GDB is facing a $354 million principal and interest payment on December 1 – some $270 million of that is GO debt guaranteed by the National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. Defaulting on that is bad news and as Moody’s warned earlier this month, a missed payment on the commonwealth’s highest priority obligations “would likely trigger legal action from creditors, commencing a potentially drawn-out process absent swift federal intervention.”
Another $303 million comes due one month later on January 1.
GDB called Friday’s meeting with consultants and advisers “part of our continued effort to maintain a constructive and open dialog with our key stakeholders” while a spokesperson for the governor promised Puerto Rico is doing everything in its power to make the December 1 payment although Padilla has repeatedly made clear that if it comes down to defaulting or cutting off services to the people, bondholders will be out of luck.
Here’s a bullet point summary of recent developments from BofAML:
- On 6 November, Puerto Rico released its unaudited quarterly financial and operating report. In the report, Puerto Rico makes plain that it faces a near-term liquidity crisis, has too much debt, limited ability to raise revenues, and a near-decade-long recessionary economy.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Treasury Warns Of “Humanitarian Crisis” In Puerto Rico If Congress Does Not Agree To Bailout
Treasury Warns Of “Humanitarian Crisis” In Puerto Rico If Congress Does Not Agree To Bailout
“Puerto Rico is not Greece“… but it increasingly looks like it will be in a few weeks, thanks to US taxpayers who are about to foot the bill for yet another creditor bailout.
As we reported last night, creditors of the insolvent commonwealth, hoping to get a bailout and the highest possible return on their bond investment courtesy of the US taxpayer, have been pushing to portray the fiscal situation in Puerto Rico as beyond repair, hoping to force the administration and Congress to act. As The NY Times reported, on Wednesday, Puerto Rico took the unusual step of announcing that talks over restructuring about $750 million of the island’s debt had broken off, a move that some creditors saw as posturing to Washington for help.
Then, all day today, Puerto Rico’s leadership, realizing its interests are suddenly alligned with those of its creditors as a bailout is in everyone’s best interest, took the rhetoric up a notch when the island’s Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said in written testimony for Senate Energy Committee that Puerto Rico will have negative cash balance of $29.8 million in November 2015, and then added that the Puerto Rico Government Development Bank may be unable to make its $355 million debt service. “These GDB bonds are supported by a guarantee from the Commonwealth, and the GDB, which faces its own liquidity crisis, is not expected to be able to make the payment on its own based on current information.”
Others quickly chimed in: Puerto Rico Senate President Eduardo Bhatia said he would be in favor of “including everything” in a broad, comprehensive restructuring of the debt.
In short: bail us out now or face the consequences of a domino effect of defaults which puts not only the creditors, but the island itself, in dire straits.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Obama Unveils Roadmap To ‘Bailout’ Puerto Rico: “New” Bankruptcy Rules & Federal Fiscal Oversight
Obama Unveils Roadmap To ‘Bailout’ Puerto Rico: “New” Bankruptcy Rules & Federal Fiscal Oversight
America is not Greece, but judging from the Obama administration’s just-unveiled plans to bailout Puerto Rico’s disastrous debt situation, the American territory may have to sacrifice a little more sovereignty to get some relief. Obama is pressing for Congress to give Puerto Rico (PR) sweeping powers to reduce its $73 billion debt burden through a form of bankruptcy protection not now available to American territoriesand will also ask lawmakers to establish an independent body to monitor the island’s fiscal affairs (a la Troika). While the proposals likely face an uphill battle in Congress, as NYTimes reports, both Democrats and Republicans are under pressure to respond because Puerto Ricans are flooding the US, particularly in central Florida, and are becoming an increasingly important voting block in the 2016 presidential race.
Puerto Rico is teetering under debt amassed from years of borrowing as the economy failed to grow and residents left for the U.S. mainland. Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla is seeking to persuade investors to accept less than they’re owed, saying tax increases and spending cuts alone won’t be sufficient to eliminate the government’s budget shortfalls.
Creditors say that the island’s government has been seeking to portray the fiscal situation in Puerto Rico as beyond repair, hoping to force the administration and Congress to act. As The NY Times reports, on Wednesday, Puerto Rico took the unusual step of announcing that talks over restructuring about $750 milllion of the island’s debt had broken off, a move that some creditors saw as posturing to Washington for help.
It appears to have worked… (as Bloomberg details)
President Barack Obama is pressing for Congress to give Puerto Rico sweeping powers to reduce its $73 billion debt burden through bankruptcy, escalating administration involvement as the Caribbean island’s access to cash dries up.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Massive Debt Bomb is Going to Explode: “We Are Reaching a Limit”
The Massive Debt Bomb is Going to Explode: “We Are Reaching a Limit”
Debt now defines us.
Personal and household debt is at unprecedented historical levels. Many Americans are stretched many times past their limit with no hope of getting out of the black.Student loan debt is its own huge bubble, waiting to burst, and perhaps big enough to trigger another crisis in its own right. Dozens of states and cities are on the verge of default, as are places like Puerto Rico.
Then there’s federal government debt. The next round of drama in the debt ceiling charade is coming up this fall. Partisan politics will be showcased, and programs targeted for cuts, before Congress once again rubber stamps putting the country into further rounds of endless debt. The Fiscal Times reports:
In July, Lew warned Congress that the government’s use of “extraordinary measures” to continue to finance the government on a temporary basis without breaching the current $18.1 trillion debt ceiling would last through Oct. 30.
Fears of provoking yet another debt ceiling crisis that would threaten a first-ever default on U.S. borrowing have hung over Washington for months.
The American people will never escape this debt, and it may even cause another government shutdown/showdown.
How bad will it really get? What will happen if individuals and governments just can’t make payments?
Will America ever be like Greece, Argentina or other unfortunate nations?
USA Watchdog’s Greg Hunter speaks with David Morgan of Silver-Investor.com about the impact of the massive debt bomb looming over all our heads:
The main problem America and the world has is what Morgan calls “the debt bomb.” He says the debt is at the center of the black hole of our problems. Morgan explains, “We are reaching a limit. All systems reach a limit. No tree grows to the sky.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
