The Next Crisis for Puerto Rico: A Crush of Foreclosures - The New York Times

The Next Crisis for Puerto Rico: A Crush of Foreclosures - The New York Times

"First came a brutal 10-year recession and financial crisis that drove businesses from this island and left 44 percent of the population impoverished. Then, in September, Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm, shredded buildings, wrecked the electrical power grid and possibly led to more than 1,000 deaths. Now Puerto Rico is bracing for another blow: a housing meltdown that could far surpass the worst of the foreclosure crisis that devastated Phoenix, Las Vegas, Southern California and South Florida in the past decade. If the current numbers hold, Puerto Rico is headed for a foreclosure epidemic that could rival what happened in Detroit, where abandoned homes became almost as plentiful as occupied ones. About one-third of the island’s 425,000 homeowners are behind on their mortgage payments to banks and Wall Street firms that previously bought up distressed mortgages. Tens of thousands have not made payments for months. Some 90,000 borrowers became delinquent as a consequence of Hurricane Maria, according to Black Knight Inc., a data firm formerly known as Black Knight Financial Services."

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The hedge funds, investment banks, and real estate syndicates are already moving in to buy up these distressed properties. A lot of this is condominium housing.

Rahm Emanuel's infrastructure trust: Is it a bust?

Rahm Emanuel's infrastructure trust: Is it a bust?: "The bold idea was that private financing could be found for much-needed, big-ticket improvements for the city, making it possible to get more of them done sooner and sparing taxpayers from having to foot the bills. City Hall says that still can happen. 

But the infrastructure trust has fallen short of the expectations the mayor laid out. It has yet to raise a dime in private financing for a single public works project, records show. At the same time, it has cost Chicago taxpayers more than $5.1 million to pay for its handful of employees, offices on Wacker Drive, consulting fees and other expenses."



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Investigation: Emanuel's Chicago Infrastructure Trust has cost taxpayers $5 million but has contributed little, and other news | Bleader

Investigation: Emanuel's Chicago Infrastructure Trust has cost taxpayers $5 million but has contributed little, and other news | Bleader: "Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched the nonprofit Chicago Infrastructure Trust in 2012 with the promise of finding private investors to fund public infrastructure improvement projects. But the trust has cost Chicago taxpayers more than $5.1 million in administrative costs and salaries without raising any money, the Sun-Times reports. And it's accomplished little beyond assisting the city in choosing contractors for streetlight upgrades and the $95 million police and fire training academy. "There's no excuse for the mayor to avoid closing down this thing that's been a complete failure," a high-ranking Chicago official told the Sun-Times. "They've done nothing that can't be done by [the Department of Fleet and Facilities Management] or the Public Building Commission.""



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How the American government slowly became a business | Jon Michaels | Opinion | The Guardian

How the American government slowly became a business | Jon Michaels | Opinion | The Guardian

"To be sure, gated communities and corporate conglomerates have their charms. And so does businesslike government. It promises to be faster, more innovative, cheaper, and more “customer” friendly – and that no doubt sounds appealing to any number of us who have endured long lines at the DMV or who have otherwise experienced wasteful, sclerotic, or simply apathetic government. But even assuming that those promises can be kept (a big if), there is good reason not to embrace privatized, commercialized government."