Puerto Rico is today’s liner, the St. Louis. What will be gauged is American’s tolerance
for the total annihilation of the American territory of Puerto Rico and its
American citizens for Wall Street profits.
Our “elected” officials are complicit in the annihilation of Puerto Rico
on behalf of their campaign donors. Case
in point, Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s long, long service to his master,
Vulture Capitalist Paul Singer.
Interesting that Senator Rubio is a loud voice in advocating for
hurricane relief for Puerto Rico, but whose relief is Rubio really interested
in? From Gregory Palast:
Excerpt:
Rubio’s Billionaire wins ransom
from Argentina
Paul Singer, known as The Vulture,
won a $4.65 billion payment from Argentina — nearly ONE HUNDRED TIMES his
"investment" of $50 million in old Argentina bonds. It was, in finance speak, the most successful "vulture
attack" ever.
Singer’s actions are outlawed in most of the civilized world. Hillary
Clinton, as Secretary of State, attempted to stop Singer’s predatory act, but
Singer did a brilliant end-run: he used
his cash to help elect a new President in Argentina that would jump to his tune
and pay him billions.
Now, he’s attempting to do the same
to the USA: pick a president for us who
will feather his vulture's nest. He’s the number one donor sugar daddy for
Marco Rubio’s candidacy…
Rubio, in fact, skirted some ethical lines in his attempts to pressure
the State Department to side with his corpse-chewing donor against
Argentina… Rubio’s affection for
carrion-eating birds has no decent bounds. While
Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders are currently siding with Puerto Rico against a
whole flock of vulture financiers. Sanders and Clinton support Rico’s plea
for the same bankruptcy protections afforded the 50 states (and afforded to
Donald Trump).
But Rubio has actually switched positions. The Senator, who
originally supported bankruptcy rights for Puerto Ricans, turned on a dime the moment Vulture financier Andrew
Herenstein of Monarch Capital announced he would hold a big fundraiser for
Marco in the Hamptons.
Rubio now is calling for
Puerto Rico to lay off teachers and sanitation workers to pay more to
Herenstein and his fellow vultures–financiers already cranking profits on
Puerto Rico bonds.
Watching Rubio flip his positions
to his donors’ wishes is like watching one of those little doggies glued to the
top of an old mechanical piggy bank who jump through a clown’s hoop when you
put a coin in their snout.
Well, God bless America
My, my, my. Little
Marco knows who butters his bread. Our
bought and paid for congress refused to allow Puerto Rico file for bankruptcy,
like any state would. Congress appointed
a board, like the Emergency Manager that was appointed for Detroit, to look out
for the interests of the creditors of Puerto Rico over that of the people.
While huge numbers of dumbed down Americans don’t even know
that the citizens of Puerto Rico are Americans, Little Marco’s Wall Street vulture
buddies are circling the remains. From
The Intercept:
Excerpt:
PUERTO RICO REJECTS LOAN OFFERS,
ACCUSING HEDGE FUNDS OF TRYING TO PROFIT OFF HURRICANES
PUERTO RICO HAS rejected a bondholder group’s offer to issue the
territory additional debt as a response to the devastation from Hurricane
Maria. Officials with Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory
Authority said the offer was “not viable” and would harm the island’s ability
to recover from the storm.
The Prepa (Puerto Rico Electric
Power Authority) Bondholder Group made
the offer on Wednesday, which included $1 billion in new loans, and a swap
of $1 billion in existing bonds for another $850 million bond. These new bonds would have jumped to the
front of the line for repayment, and between that increased value and
interest payments after the first two years, the bondholders would have likely
come out ahead on the deal, despite a nominal $150 million in debt relief.
Indeed, the offer was worse in terms of debt relief than the one the bondholder
group made in April, well before hurricanes destroyed much of the island’s
critical infrastructure.
Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Agency and
Financial Advisory Authority suggested that profit motive rather than altruism was the bondholder group’s real
goal. Thomas Wagner of Knighthead
Capital Management, one of the members of the bondholder group, admitted as
much on Bloomberg TV yesterday, saying “What we’re trying to do is lend where
our investors are not disadvantaged.” He added that the loan could be a “win-win” for the utility and the bondholders,
“where the capital is not expensive...”
The island’s 3.4 million residents were without power in the immediate aftermath
of the storm, and most continue without power today. Prepa has limited ability
to restore the grid, given the island’s
cash-strapped status…
Despite growing calls for debt
relief, no bondholder has said they
would supply it in the days following the storm, nor have creditor lawsuits
been withdrawn.
Absolutely astonishing, the Wall Street vultures offer only
deeper debt with loans that reap exorbitant Wall Street profits in return for
water and power. Wall Street banks are using
their massive control over the US congress to impede the hurricane aid from
reaching Puerto Rico in order to place their interests ahead of others.
President Trump has come under vicious attack by the media
and congress for tweeting:
Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which
was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep
trouble… …It's old electrical grid,
which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed,
with billions of dollars... ...owed to
Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities
- and doing well.
Of course the media, along with members of congress and the
usual Trump haters went into overdrive condemning Trump for bringing up Wall
Street’s financial enslavement of Puerto Rico at a time of catastrophe. But that is exactly the time to bring it up,
when the vultures are circling. From
Slate:
Excerpt:
How Can Puerto Rico’s Debt Problems Be “Dealt With”?
Trump seems to understand banks and hedge funds will trouble the
island’s recovery. There’s only one thing for him to do.
On Tuesday, President Trump said
something about Puerto Rico that was sort of right…
Of the American locales that have
been hit by hurricanes in recent weeks, he wrote in a series of tweets, “Texas
& Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from
broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble. It’s old
electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with
billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks, which, sadly, must be
dealt with.”
One way of interpreting Trump’s tweet salad is that he was saying
the wreckage of Hurricane Maria was somehow Puerto Rico’s fault…
The more charitable and hopeful way of reading Trump’s tweets is that
Puerto Rico needs to be rebuilt and reconstructed—and that unfortunately,
it must do so at a time when it is already crippled by the interest payments it
must make to banks and bondholders…
Simply put, it won’t be possible to reconstruct Puerto Rico’s infrastructure,
economy, or society without reconstructing its finances. If that’s what
Trump was going for, it’s dead-on…
Wall Street and the banks do, indeed, have to be “dealt with.” And
perhaps they need to be dealt with in the same way that Trump has dealt with
banks, Wall Street, and real estate lenders throughout his career: by telling them to take a hike and settle
for far less than they expected.
Given that many of Puerto Rico’s systems were decrepit and outdated—the
island generates electricity by shipping in oil and burning it—the destruction
presents an opportunity not simply to rebuild, but to build a more effective and resilient one. But that takes a lot of
money. And the reconstruction can’t be funded simply with insurance payments or
even with whatever handouts the
Republican Congress will provide.
Bondholders don’t pause for weather. In order to stay current on
debt, entities in Puerto Rico have to keep making interest payments—even when
they’re not collecting revenues. Some of the first cash that Puerto Rico’s
power authority and other government agencies get from insurance or
government aid will be funneled to the pockets of bondholders.
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which provides
electricity on the island, has $9 billion in debt and was in bankruptcy before
the hurricane hit. Each year, it is on
the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars of interest payments—all before it
can spend a penny on fuel, salaries, upkeep, or transformation...
The same holds true for Puerto Rico
at large, which has $73 billion in debt. This in a territory with a GDP of $103
billion—Puerto Rico is about the size of Mississippi and about as poor. Again,
the first $3 billion to $4 billion of
revenue Puerto Rico generates each year goes to pay interest without making a
dent in the total…
Is this sad landscape what Trump
had in mind with his tweets? OK, I doubt it. But Puerto Rico doesn’t just need a haircut of 15 to 20 percent on its
debt, which is common in bankruptcies. It
needs a buzz cut with large chunks of debt either forgiven, wiped out, written
off as uncollectable, or assumed by the federal government. That’s
how its problems can be “dealt with.” Will Trump deal with them?
Puerto Rico’s public health was a catastrophe before the
hurricane. After the Hurricane is sure
to be worse. From Stephen Lendman:
Excerpt:
Puerto Rico: A Public Health Catastrophe
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke deplorably called
the federal response to crisis conditions in Puerto Rico a “good news story,”
adding she’s “very satisfied.” San Juan Mayor Yulin Cruz emotionally
responded, saying “(w)ell, maybe from where she’s standing it’s a good-news
story…”
“When you’re drinking from a creek,
it’s not a good-news story. When you don’t have food for a baby, it’s not a
good-news story…” Cruz continued adding
“(d)ammit, this is not a good-news story.
This is a people-are-dying story. This is a life-or-death story.” “This is ‘there’s a truckload of stuff that
cannot be taken to people’ story. This is a story of devastation that continues
to worsen because people are not getting food or water…”
Around half the population has no access to drinking water.
Hospitals can’t function normally, struggling to keep seriously ill patients
alive… Supplies delivered to ports are
stuck in docks for lack of transportation. Nearly two weeks ago, the strongest
hurricane in nearly 90 years devastated the Island, creating crisis conditions
for its 3.4 million residents.
On Monday, Florida International
University Dean Tomas Guilarte said conditions in Puerto Rico continue
deteriorating. A public health
catastrophe looms. “When the sewer
system stops working, wastewater – aka human feces and urine – and seaborne
bacteria contaminate the water supply.”
“This leads to bacterial infections
– such as cholera, dysentery, E. coli and typhoid – that can be disastrous. The
typical treatments, like tetanus shots
or powerful antibiotics, are not readily available on the island, where medical
supplies are quickly running out.”
According to FEMA, 58 of the
island’s 69 hospitals have no power or fuel for generators. Only one is
operating normally. Water can’t be
boiled to kill bacteria. Some toxins become concentrated by the boiling process. It kills harmful organisms, not toxic
chemicals, compounds, salts, and heavy metals. Disease-causing pathogens
contaminated areas affected by floodwaters.
Toxicity seeping from Puerto Rico’s Battery Recycling Company in
the Arecibo coastal area alone “could be off the charts,” said Guilarte… Immediate congressional action is vital,
appropriating enough funds for food, medical supplies and medicines, along with
other essentials to life.
Most islanders are impoverished. Residents
EVACUATED BY GOVERNMENT AIRCRAFT and other means of transportation have to sign
promissory notes to repay the cost, a disgraceful situation.
It’s amazing how Wall Street interests are impervious to
human suffering if it gets in the way of profits. For instance, the Jones Act, an archaic law
which prohibits foreign countries from shipping goods directly into ports in
Puerto Rico was temporarily suspended by the Trump Administration. Now some Senators are calling for ending the outdated
Jones Act. From The Hill:
Excerpt:
McCain repeats call for Jones Act repeal following Puerto Rico waiver
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday repeated his call to repeal the Jones Act after the Trump
administration announced a temporary lift on shipping restrictions for Puerto
Rico as it recovers from Hurricanes Maria and Irma.
“Trump admin has finally waived
#JonesAct for #PuertoRico. Now Congress must repeal this law to aid long-term
recovery,” McCain wrote on Twitter.
Lawmakers this week have pushed for a one-year waiver of the law,
which mandates that American-owned and -operated vessels transport cargo
between U.S. ports, so that Puerto Rico can receive much-needed aid after being
battered by two major hurricanes in the last month. McCain this week re-upped his call to repeal the
law, which he has called “archaic and
burdensome.”
“It is unacceptable to force the people of Puerto Rico to pay
at least twice as much for food, clean drinking water, supplies and
infrastructure due to Jones Act requirements as they work to recover from
this disaster,” the senator wrote in a letter to acting Homeland Security
Secretary Elaine Duke. The Trump
administration early Thursday announced a 10-day waiver to the Jones Act that
goes into effect immediately.
Gee, only a 10-day waiver from the punitive Jones Act that
forces the people of Puerto Rico to pay twice as much for “food, clean drinking
water, supplies and infrastructure” seems unconscionable under any
circumstances. Who could possibly be
against this? From The Intercept:
Excerpt:
U.S. SHIPPING LOBBY: LETTING
FOREIGN SHIPS BRING GOODS TO PUERTO RICO COULD ENDANGER NATIONAL SECURITY
ALLOWING FOREIGN SHIPS to bring goods to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico would
be a grave threat to national security, warned a handful of American
shipping companies who have the trade routes locked down thanks to a
century-old law. They wanted to see that
law left in place, thank you very much.
Puerto Rico, suffering from the combined forces of economic collapse,
debt-driven austerity, and Hurricane Maria’s devastation, faces restrictions on imports from foreign registered ships under
the Jones Act, a law supported by a small but powerful group of American companies that dominate U.S.-Puerto Rico
shipping routes…
Many have recently argued that the
law has dragged down the Puerto Rican economy by artificially increasing costs
for island residents and businesses…
Resistance to the waiver came as millions of Americans were without
clean drinking water, facing a life-threatening situation that has already
turned deadly for some.
Puerto Rico is a Wall Street chattel state and congress will
do nothing to save lives if it slashes into the billions Vulture Capitalists
can make there. Congress’ response is
always the same “privatization.”
Privatization is anti-American.
From The Nation:
Excerpt:
Privatization ‘Disproportionately Hurts Poor Individuals and Families’
When public services get handed
over to private corporations, poor Americans lose.
In a compendium of privatization
disasters, the watchdog group In the Public
Interest (ITPI) concludes that “government privatization disproportionately
hurts poor individuals and families.” By shifting social costs onto the
public, the market logic of “personal responsibility” serves as a pretext for a
self-perpetuating spiral of social disinvestment.
One way privatization fleeces the poor is by making basic public
services cost more… ITPI points to privatization schemes for water
and electricity systems, which have hiked user fees for outsourced utilities,
but suffered from a decline in the quality of services, and that spiking rates “particularly harm low-income residents and
those on fixed-incomes.”
On the national level, under the semi-private Affordable Care Act,
overall costs for the public health-care “consumers” are virtually
uncontrolled, but the free market draws
from unlimited spigots of government subsidies…
There are a myriad of examples of graft, corruption and
kickbacks baked into the cake of privatization.
However, congress never learns from experience, if that experience
interferes with their personal profiteering off the public trough. From The Intercept:
Excerpt:
HURRICANE IRMA UNLEASHES THE FORCES
OF PRIVATIZATION IN PUERTO RICO
VULTURES CIRCLING THE wreckage of
Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Irma are closing in on a long-sought prize: the privatizing of the island’s electric
utility… “[The investors] have the
best sales pitch now,” Carlos Gallisá, a former consumer representative on
Prepa’s board of directors, told The Intercept by phone from San Juan. “They have already started, saying that only
privatization will serve the people.”
For struggling governments around the world, privatizing utilities has
come to be seen as a kind of get-rich-quick scheme, offering an upfront
infusion of cash to underfunded municipalities... The blackout following Irma
just added fuel to the fire. Days before Irma hit, Rosselló emphasized that privatization is firmly on the table…
According to a Friday report from
Reorg Research, a trade publication for investors, creditors and members of
Puerto Rico’s federally appointed financial oversight board have met with
Prepa top brass in recent days to discuss a new “transformation plan” aimed at privatizing major aspects of the power
authority…
In radio interviews after the
storm, a representative from the
Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER) that represents
Prepa workers denounced the utility’s
leadership for not sending 170 available workers out to reconnect lines and
accused it of delaying restoration to build support for a corporate selloff.
Since the day that General Kelly took over as Trump’s Chief
of Staff, the President’s information has been heavily filtered and only that
information General Kelly wants the president to see is presented. When President Trump lands in Puerto Rico
Tuesday he may get a rude awakening.
Puerto Rico is the canary in the coal mine for Wall Street’s
controlled demolition of America. How
goes Puerto Rico, goes the rest of the Nation.
If Puerto Rico is busted up and sold off to the highest bidders and
congress floods the private hedge funds with Treasury cash to rebuild, Wall
Street will be unstoppable. However, if President Trump deals with banks, Wall
Street, and real estate lenders like he has dealt with them throughout his
career he’ll tell them to take a hike and settle for far less than they
expected.
By Patricia Baeten
