{"id":25998,"date":"2017-09-22T14:29:23","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T19:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=25998"},"modified":"2017-09-22T14:31:19","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T19:31:19","slug":"in-the-murk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=25998","title":{"rendered":"In the Murk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the Murk<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Puerto Rico, You lovely island,
\n<\/em>Island of tropical breezes\u2026.
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014 West Side Story<\/p>\n

Welcome to America\u2019s first experiment in the World Made By Hand<\/em> lifestyle. Where else is it going? Watch closely.<\/p>\n

Ricardo Ramos, the director of the beleaguered, government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, told CNN Thursday that the island\u2019s power infrastructure had been basically \u201cdestroyed\u201d and will take months to come back<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically destroyed.\u201d That\u2019s about as basic as it gets civilization-wise.<\/p>\n

Residents, Mr. Ramos said, would need to change the way they cook and cool off. For entertainment, old-school would be the best approach, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good time for dads to buy a ball and a glove and change the way you entertain your children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning, I guess, no more playing Resident Evil 7: Biohazard<\/em> on-screen because you\u2019ll be living it \u2014 though one wonders where will the money come from to buy the ball and glove? Few Puerto Ricans will be going to work with the power off. And the island\u2019s public finances were in disarray sufficient to drive it into federal court last May to set in motion a legal receivership that amounted to bankruptcy in all but name. The commonwealth<\/em>, a US territory, was in default for $74 billion in bonded debt, plus another $49 billion in unfunded pension obligations.<\/p>\n

So, Puerto Rico already faced a crisis pre-Hurricane Maria, with its dodgy electric grid and crumbling infrastructure: roads, bridges, water and sewage systems. Bankruptcy put it in a poor position to issue new bonds for public works which are generally paid for with public borrowing. Who, exactly, would buy the new bonds? I hear readers whispering, \u201cthe Federal Reserve.\u201d Which is a pretty good clue to understanding the circle-jerk that American finance has become.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Murk Puerto Rico, You lovely island, Island of tropical breezes\u2026. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014 West Side Story Welcome to America\u2019s first experiment in the World Made By Hand lifestyle. Where else is it going? Watch closely. Ricardo Ramos, the director of the beleaguered, government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,7],"tags":[16039,449,16108,3824],"class_list":["post-25998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-hurricane-maria","tag-james-howard-kunstler","tag-power-infrastructure","tag-puerto-rico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25999,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25998\/revisions\/25999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}