Thursday, October 26, 2017

A Potential Alliance Between Socialists and Libertarians Over Puerto Rican Government Debt



Last week, a picket, staged in Boston and organized by the International Socialist Organization and co-sponsored by Boston Democratic Socialists of America and the Green-Rainbow Party, called for the cancellation of Puerto Rico's debt.

The debt in question is debt run up irresponsibly by
past Puerto Rican governments. Every hardcore libertarian would, of course, support default on this debt rather than have the decent people of Puerto Rico or US taxpayers bailout the owners of this debt. From a libertarian perspective, this should be the position on all government debt.

The protest was held in Boston because it is the headquarters of Seth Klaman's  Baupost Group hedge fund which owns near a billion dollars worth of the Puerto Rican debt. The bonds were issued by the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp., which goes by the acronym COFINA.

Chants included: "¡Seth Klarman, cancela la deuda, si no, te damos candela!" ("Cancel the debt, Seth Klarman, or we'll dog you everywhere you go!")

Of course, the confused socialists did blame the debt on capitalism rather than the oppressive government. One speaker expressed how this was a case where the true face of capitalism was revealed, reports the SocialistWorker.orgs.

 -RW

Sources:
CNBC
SocialistWorkers.org


9 comments:

  1. Cancel the debt and then what? It is all a mess and no easy way to resolve the issue. Will PR sell or be forced to sell AEE and AAA?
    PR is like Argentina in the Caribbean.

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  2. Good post. The state’s creditors are enabling state profligacy. They deserve to lose their shirt before the taxpayers do.

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  3. Unless I personally know the person Ill never stand with or trust a socialist (or conservative, liberal or altrigher for that matter).

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  4. While I agree that default is better than a taxpayer bailout of governments and the owners of government debt. I would rather see governments pay their debts by selling their assets to private parties. Thus reducing government held property until they have none at all. I know this will not solve the problem of governments control over private property, but could go a long way toward that.

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  5. When can we dump PR and send them back? Let them all rot with 'socialismo' and 'corrupcion' and do it on their own. Yeah, all mainland PR's should be returned to PR. Tell me again libertardians how all cultures are equal?

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    1. Instead of whinnying for the government to do you dirty work for you why dont you altrighters grow a backbone and carry out your fantasies yourselves?

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    2. @NY Cynic

      But if they did that, then who could they scapegoat for their personal failings?

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    3. It is the government already doing dirty jobs. What are you advocatong, vigintalism? PR needs to be let go. Heck, needs letting go, too.

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