[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  Selfie Monkey [@selfie_monkey](/creator/twitter/selfie_monkey) on x 1006 followers Created: 2025-07-24 02:07:03 UTC Puerto Rico’s electrical utility debt should not just be restructured. It should be repudiated. The so-called PREPA bonds are not legitimate obligations of the people of Puerto Rico. They are the toxic byproduct of decades of political patronage, corruption, false accounting, and fiscal shell games—enabled by Wall Street underwriters, rubber-stamped by conflicted law firms, and ultimately snapped up by vulture funds seeking to turn public failure into private profit. Calling it “debt” is already misleading. A better word would be extraction contract—a one-sided paper claim with no democratic consent, no genuine public benefit, and no moral basis. What makes this situation even more obscene is that these claims are being enforced not by any elected body, but by an unelected Fiscal Control Board imposed by Congress under PROMESA, a colonial statute passed without the consent of the governed. The Board has one clear mandate: protect the interests of creditors. That’s why hospitals close while bondholders get paid. That’s why electric rates spike while blackouts increase. That’s why essential investments in grid resilience, solar microgrids, and climate adaptation are delayed, downsized, or discarded—because every dollar spent to keep people safe and powered is a dollar not sent to some Manhattan hedge fund holding distressed Puerto Rican paper. Let’s be clear about what happened. PREPA, like many public utilities, was mismanaged for decades. But instead of cleaning house, those in charge papered over the dysfunction with massive bond issuances, backed by nothing but faith, hope, and political inertia. When the music stopped, there was no infrastructure to show for it—just more outages, more fuel dependency, and more costly contracts handed to cronies. And yet the people, who never voted for any of this, are expected to pay. Most of the PREPA bonds were bought by hedge funds on the secondary market, for pennies on the dollar. These firms knew exactly what they were buying: not a safe municipal investment, but a speculative bet on their ability to force Puerto Rico into a brutal austerity regime, or squeeze settlements through court. This isn’t investment. It’s financial colonialism. It’s the same playbook used in Argentina, Greece, and countless Global South economies: find a distressed public entity, buy its junk debt cheap, weaponize the courts, and extract as much as possible before the place falls apart. That’s not finance—it’s predation. The concept of odious debt is relevant here. International legal scholars use it to describe loans incurred by regimes that do not act in the interests of their people, especially when the funds are misused, embezzled, or used to enrich insiders. PREPA’s debts fit this definition precisely. They were not incurred through democratic deliberation. They did not benefit the people. The proceeds were not used to build a better grid or lower energy costs. They were used to prop up a failing system that everyone—investors included—knew was collapsing. This is debt as fraud. U.S. bankruptcy law already allows for the restructuring of debts that can’t be repaid without harming the public. Under PROMESA Title III, federal courts are empowered to reduce principal, cancel interest, and protect essential services from financial ruin. But that’s not enough. This is not just about what the law permits. It’s about what justice demands. You cannot fix a broken society by enforcing broken contracts written by and for those who broke it in the first place. XXX engagements  **Related Topics** [wall street](/topic/wall-street) [shell](/topic/shell) [accounting](/topic/accounting) [debt](/topic/debt) [puerto rico](/topic/puerto-rico) [Post Link](https://x.com/selfie_monkey/status/1948203243080691944)
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Selfie Monkey @selfie_monkey on x 1006 followers
Created: 2025-07-24 02:07:03 UTC
Puerto Rico’s electrical utility debt should not just be restructured. It should be repudiated. The so-called PREPA bonds are not legitimate obligations of the people of Puerto Rico. They are the toxic byproduct of decades of political patronage, corruption, false accounting, and fiscal shell games—enabled by Wall Street underwriters, rubber-stamped by conflicted law firms, and ultimately snapped up by vulture funds seeking to turn public failure into private profit. Calling it “debt” is already misleading. A better word would be extraction contract—a one-sided paper claim with no democratic consent, no genuine public benefit, and no moral basis.
What makes this situation even more obscene is that these claims are being enforced not by any elected body, but by an unelected Fiscal Control Board imposed by Congress under PROMESA, a colonial statute passed without the consent of the governed. The Board has one clear mandate: protect the interests of creditors. That’s why hospitals close while bondholders get paid. That’s why electric rates spike while blackouts increase. That’s why essential investments in grid resilience, solar microgrids, and climate adaptation are delayed, downsized, or discarded—because every dollar spent to keep people safe and powered is a dollar not sent to some Manhattan hedge fund holding distressed Puerto Rican paper.
Let’s be clear about what happened. PREPA, like many public utilities, was mismanaged for decades. But instead of cleaning house, those in charge papered over the dysfunction with massive bond issuances, backed by nothing but faith, hope, and political inertia. When the music stopped, there was no infrastructure to show for it—just more outages, more fuel dependency, and more costly contracts handed to cronies. And yet the people, who never voted for any of this, are expected to pay.
Most of the PREPA bonds were bought by hedge funds on the secondary market, for pennies on the dollar. These firms knew exactly what they were buying: not a safe municipal investment, but a speculative bet on their ability to force Puerto Rico into a brutal austerity regime, or squeeze settlements through court. This isn’t investment. It’s financial colonialism. It’s the same playbook used in Argentina, Greece, and countless Global South economies: find a distressed public entity, buy its junk debt cheap, weaponize the courts, and extract as much as possible before the place falls apart. That’s not finance—it’s predation.
The concept of odious debt is relevant here. International legal scholars use it to describe loans incurred by regimes that do not act in the interests of their people, especially when the funds are misused, embezzled, or used to enrich insiders. PREPA’s debts fit this definition precisely. They were not incurred through democratic deliberation. They did not benefit the people. The proceeds were not used to build a better grid or lower energy costs. They were used to prop up a failing system that everyone—investors included—knew was collapsing. This is debt as fraud.
U.S. bankruptcy law already allows for the restructuring of debts that can’t be repaid without harming the public. Under PROMESA Title III, federal courts are empowered to reduce principal, cancel interest, and protect essential services from financial ruin. But that’s not enough. This is not just about what the law permits. It’s about what justice demands. You cannot fix a broken society by enforcing broken contracts written by and for those who broke it in the first place.
XXX engagements
Related Topics wall street shell accounting debt puerto rico