Puerto Rico at Precipice Piles on Muni Market Hampered by Crises
Puerto Rico on the Edge of a Default
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Illinois and New Jersey have dragged down the municipal-bond market this year as the states wrestled with growing pension-fund bills. Puerto Rico is depressing it even more.
Even before Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said this week that the junk-rated island can’t afford to pay its debts, municipal bonds had returned about nothing in 2015 as investors dumped securities of the cash-strapped states and the Federal Reserve moved toward raising interest rates for the first time in nine years.