If you’ve heard that Puerto Rico’s default is America’s own Greek crisis, you’re been grossly misinformed. Puerto Rico’s decision to miss a payment on a $58 million (Dh212.9 million) debt payment, just a small part of the US territory’s $72 billion in debt, can serve as an example of how a public default should be handled. Germany, please feel free to take notes.
Puerto Rico’s situation came about in a way very similar to Greece’s. It borrowed at a time of growth only to watch the economic tide turn against it. But Puerto Ricans are US citizens, and the US government has made sure that its citizens are taken care of by increasing aid — social security and medical services — helping alleviate its people’s suffering while the territory restructures its debt and struggles out of its economic problems. And there will be no media circus, no talks of expulsion and no capital controls.
Puerto Rico’s debt will be addressed in the courts, not by politicians. If Germany had thought of seeing Greeks as members of the European Union instead of lazy foreigners, the way the US sees Puerto Ricans as Americans, maybe the Greek crisis could have been avoided.
