02/2020: Redefining Reconstruction in Puerto Rico

What happens when problems are never fully addressed
PR finds itself, once again, at a poignantly grave moment in its modern history. The situation is the result of at least four events that took place in the near past, the consequences of which continue to overlap until today. Each of these events has compounded the challenges produced by the others, feeding into a spiral of problems that has destroyed different layers of the Island’s socioeconomic and institutional fiber. To make matters more pressing, the current debt negotiations are, in effect, negotiations about the viability of PR’s future, not just the repayment of defaulted debt. Flimsy assumptions about the economy’s future may simply lead to further debt negotiations or even defaults down the road. A long-term permanent recovery will require sustainable economic fundamentals, otherwise, there will never be the necessary assurances to posit the type of investment that can trigger positive feedback loops of economic activity on the Island. Time is running out.