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Episode 693: Unpayable

NPR
Published April 1, 2016 at 5:42 PM EDT
A man in a local bar watches Puerto Rico's governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla on television delivering an address on the state of the island's finances, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, June 29, 2015. The governor said the island couldn't repay its $72 billion in public debt.
Ricardo Arduengo
/
AP
A man in a local bar watches Puerto Rico's governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla on television delivering an address on the state of the island's finances, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, June 29, 2015. The governor said the island couldn't repay its $72 billion in public debt.

Puerto Rico is part of the United States, but not one of the United States. And this limbo status has brought a world of economic trouble.

Today on the show, the peculiar Puerto Rican debt crisis explained.

Along the way, we help an adorable mom sort out what's left of her investments in her own government, we meet a chemist who benefited from the boom, and hear how it all ties in with a dramatic jail heist.

Music: "While She Waits." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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