Puerto Rico Came Up Juuust A Little Short on What It Owed For August
So it seems that Puerto Rico is going to try that thing where you hope your bookie is temporarily satisfied with whatever falls out of your pockets while his flunkies dangle you upside down off of a balcony.
The Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico was looking at some major bills coming due on August 1st, including a $58 million debt service payment on bonds for the Public Finance Corporation. Puerto Rico though has been dealing with some cash flow problems lately, so it was going to be a stressful few days.
Today, the bank's president Melba Acosta Febo released a statement in which she said that payments did not get made because there is just nothing in the coffers with which to pay.
Well, not nothing exactly.
PFC did make a partial payment of interest in respect of its outstanding bonds. The partial payment was made from funds remaining from prior legislative appropriations in respect of the outstanding promissory notes securing the PFC bonds. In accordance with the terms of these bonds, which stipulate that these obligations are payable solely from funds specifically appropriated by the Legislature, PFC applied these funds—totaling approximately $628,000—to the August 1 payment.
Puerto Rico owed $58 million and they paid $628,000, but hey that's what they had on hand. You can't draw blood from a stone man.
But despite this show of "good faith," them umbitches at Moody's are throwing around the word "default."
While Moody's does seem to be acting kinda harsh, we have to admit it would have been nice if Puerto Rico had at least included that store credit to Bed, Bath and Beyond that's been sitting in its wallet unused for like months now.