Puerto Rico debt fix unlikely to resemble Detroit's
NEW YORK - The federal appointees tapped to help map Puerto Rico's economic future are technocrats more than political actors, and that could make the U.S. territory's fiscal turnaround look more like a corporate restructuring than a politically charged municipal bankruptcy in the vein of Detroit.
The law known as PROMESA, which created the board when it passed the U.S. Congress in June with bipartisan support, envisioned a pragmatic solution for an island combating $70 billion in debt, 45 percent poverty and a brain drain as residents bolt in droves for the mainland United States.
Its members, four Republicans and three Democrats appointed last week, were chosen by Republican and Democratic lawmakers and President Barack Obama. The board has broad powers to help stabilize the island's economy, from investigating Puerto Rico's government to working with that government on projects to spur economic growth.
It must also approve the island's annual budgets, and will eventually facilitate debt-restructuring talks with creditors. In the latter endeavor, it will have to navigate a minefield of competing interests.
Read more: http://www.jamestownsun.com/news/nation-and-world/4108635-puerto-rico-debt-fix-unlikely-resemble-detroits
