Puerto Rico’s terrible economy is causing a population exodus
CNN Money joins the chorus of media outlets covering Puerto Rico, its default risk and ongoing exodus.
The problem looks like this: Puerto Rico has similar debt to New York — a very large state economy — but it only has the population of Connecticut.
Every time someone leaves Puerto Rico, it only exacerbates the situation. It shrinks the island’s tax base, which the government needs to pay for itself and its debts. In recent years, the government just issued even more debt to pay off its current debt.
In publishing this however, they managed to flunk on a basic fact, reporting that there are more Puerto Ricans in Florida than in the islands. While Florida is indeed the top destination for those leaving the US territory, it is still far from having a larger number of Puerto Ricans; it still trails New York in terms of sheer number of Puerto Ricans. They should probably fix that.
