Today: American University’s Arturo Porzecanski Joins Former IMF director Charles Blitzer and Univ. of Puerto Rico’s Elias Gutierrez to Discuss Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis
Governor Garcia Padilla’s recent initiatives, particularly the Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act, have backfired and made matters worse. The time has come to consider fresh approaches to end current confidence crisis and the economic malaise, say these three experienced economists.
WASHINGTON, July 23, 2014 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — On Wednesday, July 23 at 3:00 p.m. EDT, please join us for a briefing and Q&A session featuring American University’s Professor Arturo Porzecanski, Professor Elías Gutiérrez of the University of Puerto Rico, and former IMF Director Charles Blitzer, who will provide an independent view on Puerto Rico’s deepening economic and financial crisis.
Recent decisions by the Government of Puerto Rico, discussed in the latest Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Quarterly Report, have proven highly controversial — particularly the Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act, which appears to be plunging the island into deeper economic and financial turmoil. This debt-restructuring law for state-owned companies has already precipitated a downgrade in the Commonwealth’s bonds deeper into junk status, and triggered a wave of litigation, because it is seen as abrogating the rights and seniority of creditors, especially of investors in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA).
The new law comes on the heels of attempts to raid the deposit insurance fund (COSSEC) set up by the island’s cooperative banks, in order to use those resources for fiscal purposes, and to nullify a legal agreement for tax credits of $230 million with Doral Financial Corp., a leading bank and the island’s second-largest mortgage lender. When combined with the exposure of banks to the troubled state-owned companies, these actions have aggravated the already precarious situation faced by the island’s banking system.
Porzecanski, Gutiérrez and Blitzer will discuss the implications and opportunities stemming from these developments and propose constructive ideas, including an alternative restructuring regime which mirrors the relevant (Chapter 9) section of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Date: Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Time: 3:00 pm EDT
Dial-In: 1-866-952-7534 OR 1-785-424-1835 Code: COMMUNITY
Speakers:
Arturo Porzecanski— director of the International Economic Relations Program at American University’s School of International Service
Elías Gutiérrez — economics professor at the Graduate School of Planning at the University of Puerto Rico.
Charles Blitzer — economist, former IMF Director and expert on sovereign debt management and restructuring.
SIS-School of Intl Service
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
