{"id":26478,"date":"2017-10-05T06:44:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T11:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=26478"},"modified":"2017-10-05T06:44:55","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T11:44:55","slug":"puerto-rico-is-on-track-for-historic-debt-forgiveness-unless-wall-street-gets-its-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=26478","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rico is on Track for Historic Debt Forgiveness–Unless Wall Street Gets Its Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\"COROZAL,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Photo: Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

PUERTO RICO IS ON TRACK FOR HISTORIC DEBT FORGIVENESS \u2014 UNLESS WALL STREET GETS ITS WAY<\/a><\/h3>\n
FOR BONDHOLDERS SITTING<\/u> on Puerto Rican debt, Hurricane Maria may have come just when they needed it, just as a yearslong battle over the fate of the island\u2019s financial future was beginning to turn against them. Or, depending on how the politics shake out, they could see their entire bet go south.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Ahead of Maria, the federally appointed fiscal oversight board now in control of Puerto Rico\u2019s finances had developed a plan that would wipe out 79 percent of the island\u2019s annual debt payments, taking a massive chunk out of the payday hedge funds had been hoping to land from the island.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the storm, that fight could go one of two ways: Advocates for Puerto Rico are making the case that the devastation means that 79 percent should be ratcheted up all the way to a full debt cancellation. The hedge funds, meanwhile, see an opening to attack the oversight board and reclaim ownership of the process.<\/p>\n

While Congress focuses on the size and shape of the relief package, the battle over the much larger debt \u2014 at least $74 billion \u2014 is being overshadowed. As hedge funds attempt to undermine the board\u2019s legitimacy in the courts, resentment toward the board\u00a0from a different end of the political spectrum has made the body\u00a0unpopular for entirely different reasons: It\u2019s\u00a0colonial and undemocratic. The difference between the two? The left wants debt relief for Puerto Ricans. Many bondholders want the opposite.<\/p>\n

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

Photo: Joe Raedle\/Getty Images PUERTO RICO IS ON TRACK FOR HISTORIC DEBT FORGIVENESS \u2014 UNLESS WALL STREET GETS ITS WAY FOR BONDHOLDERS SITTING on Puerto Rican debt, Hurricane Maria may have come just when they needed it, just as a yearslong battle over the fate of the island\u2019s financial future was beginning to turn against […]<\/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":[2],"tags":[195,10618,16039,16307,3824,5567],"class_list":["post-26478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-debt","tag-debt-forgiveness","tag-hurricane-maria","tag-kate-aronoff","tag-puerto-rico","tag-the-intercept"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26478","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=26478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26479,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26478\/revisions\/26479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}