Ultimately, if you continue to spend more than you take in — whether you are an individual, business or government — there will be a day of reckoning. Puerto Rico is likely to reach that day by Dec. 1.
Back in June, the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, announced that the government debt of $73 billion had grown so large that it was no longer “repayable.” At that time, many of us who have had experience with countries in fiscal crisis made recommendations (see my commentary “Puerto Rico is America’s Greece,” June 23) to avoid what is now almost certain to happen. Puerto Rico is a partially self-governing U.S. possession. It is required to follow the U.S. Constitution and many, but not all, federal laws and regulations.