Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was recently featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer speaking on Puerto Rico. Read excerpt below and follow link to full article.
Forgiveness Alone Won't End Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis
By: Joseph DiStefano
"Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans fled to the U.S. mainland. 'You can buy a $60 one-way ticket to Miami or an $89 ticket to New York, and you are a citizen here,' LeCompte says. Residents of storm-wracked, independent, and broke Caribbean islands such as Dominica and Antigua-Barbuda are still more desperate, seeking shelter from relatives abroad. Those islands face effective takeover by the International Monetary Fund.
Could even rich U.S. states such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where politicians try to paper over billion-dollar budget gaps by urging residents to gamble more, get like this? Bankruptcy and forgiveness aren’t enough, LeCompte concludes: 'There need to be protections in place for responsible lending and responsible borrowing. Public budget transparency. Bond market regulations. Or you’ll get more financial crises as bad as things got in Puerto Rico.'"
Read more here.