Madagascar Development

Amid a financial crisis, the Puerto Rican government has proposed cutting nearly $500 million from the university's budget. Students and faculty say it would cripple the leading institution. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Now to Puerto Rico where the financial crisis has meant big trouble at the U.S. territory's largest public university. For nearly two months, students have been on strike, an action that has shut down classes for more than 50,000 students. From San Juan, NPR's Greg Allen filed this report. GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: At the University of Puerto Rico in a San Juan suburb, the normally bustling campus is now strangely empty. In the center, there's an ornate bell tower with a banner hanging from it. It says revolution, damn it. MINETTE BONILLA: It's been a really, like, symbolic space for the fight. ALLEN: Minette Bonilla is an architecture student who was set to graduate in June. Since the end of March, she's been not in classes, but part of a student g

Puerto Rico  will begin its bankruptcy proceedings on May 17  in San Juan with a series of requests for managing the  case as the commonwealth begins restructuring 70 Billion Dollar debt.  Puerto Rico Is Bankrupt - Hearing On May 17

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday appointed a federal judge based in Manhattan to oversee Puerto Rico's landmark bankruptcy case two days after the island's government filed for protection from creditors. In a brief statement, Roberts said he had designated U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York to handle the biggest bankruptcy in the history of the U.S. municipal debt market. Puerto Rico, which has roughly $70 billion in debt, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday.. Some of its public agencies are expected to do the same in coming days. Because the U.S. territory is not eligible for traditional bankruptcy protection, the filing came under Title III of PROMESA, the federal Puerto Rico rescue law passed last year. "I see the selection as a sign that Chief Justice Roberts knows very well the importance of this case and the need for the case to be perceived as having a fair process," said Melissa Jacoby, bankruptcy expert

In April, the U.S. economy added 211,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to a new post-crisis low of 4.4%. Wages, which are closely tracked by the Federal Reserve, rose 0.3% month-on-month, as expected. The the annual increase in wages, however, disappointed with wages up just 2.5% over the same month last year. The underemployment rate fell to 8.6% after hitting a post-crisis low of 8.9% in March. Last month, Gary Cohn, President Trump’s chief economic advisor, said the administration is focused on the underemployment rate. Capping a busy week for markets and political news, the report was expected to show a rebound in hiring last month after March’s report disappointed. April report tops expectations, unemployment rate rebounds

With its creditors at its heels and its coffers depleted, Puerto Rico sought what is essentially bankruptcy relief in federal court on Wednesday, the first time in history that an American state or territory had taken the extraordinary measure. The action sent Puerto Rico, whose approximately $123 billion in debt and pension obligations far exceeds the $18 billion bankruptcy filed by Detroit in 2013, to uncharted ground. While the court proceedings could eventually make the island solvent for the first time in decades, the more immediate repercussions will likely be grim: Government workers will forgo pension money, public health and infrastructure projects will go wanting, and the “brain drain” the island has been suffering as professionals move to the mainland could intensify. Puerto Rico is “unable to provide its citizens effective services” because of the crushing weight of its debt, according to a filing on Wednesday by the federal board that has supervised the island’s