Reason.tv: Governor Luis Fortuno on How Puerto Rico Avoided Becoming "America's Greece"

Zach Weissmueller | 4.8.2012 12:00 PM

"Things were so bad that I had to fly up to New York to meet with ratings agencies before being sworn in, to avoid a guaranteed downgrade to 'junk' status," says Puerto Rico's governor Luis Fortuño. "We should have been America's Greece."

Fortuño spoke at Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation's annual donor event, which took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He discussed the importance of making bold, quick cuts to government, his plans to incentivize capital investment in Puerto Rico, and his desire to see Puerto Rico be admitted as the 51st state in the union.

About 25 minutes. Filmed by Joshua Swain and Anthony Fisher. Edited by Zach Weissmueller.

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The Immaculate Trouser 13 years ago

Governing in Puerto Rico is hard as hell -- it's somewhere between your typical Latin American country and a US state in terms of graft within government and police brutality.

When Fortuno was first elected, I thought he'd get rolled, if he hadn't been already. I've been pleasantly surprised. Thank you, Reason, for covering one of the most improbable victories for freer minds and markets, in a region not known for same.
Pound. Head. On. Desk. 13 years ago

One of the few place in the US I've never been. I suppose I should correct that.

Meanwhile, I'll be going back outside to finish up the spareribs I'll be feeding my relatives today. It's a great Boy Meets Grill kinda day!
1. Killazontherun 13 years ago
  
  Wished my family were not so stupidly traditional. I offered to grill, no takers. Despise the pungent smell of green beans in the air every fucking holiday. Just had dinner over my sister's place.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    We are having people over and my wife is doing the four course Italian meal complete with a bottle of wine for each course. One thing about marrying an Italian, you can always get bombed on holidays.
    1. Killazontherun 13 years ago
      
      Lucky man.
      
      One of my uncles went to cooking school in Italy. Introduced me to dipping biscotti into mascato for desert. I don't have any mescato on hand, but I do the biscotto and a some good port. Thanks John, you have inspired me.
      1. Killazontherun 13 years ago
        
        Lol! I'll try that a third time -- Moscato!!!! I thought I cleaned up those errors. Must have hit cntrl-z a few times afterwards.
        
        Atanarjuat 13 years ago
        
        mescato
        
        Just don't dip whatever those are into mescal and you'll be alright.
  2. Robert 13 years ago
    
    Pungent smell? Are those string beans rotten?
np 13 years ago

in lieu of graphical smileys SIV's been complaining about...

???(~_??
1. np 13 years ago
  
  huh, reason prohibits non-english characters
  
  ???
  1. Killazontherun 13 years ago
    
    I see'em. Is unicode enabled on your browser. Thought it was default for about everything now.
sage 13 years ago

No way will PR become America's Greece. You're not taking the title from California that easily.
BoscoH 13 years ago

Well, we are America's Spain, Italy, and Portugal combined.

Signed,

California
1. John 13 years ago
  
  A friend of mine posted an article about Texas succession on facebook. One of his particularly retarded liberal friends posted this long "Dear Idiots" letter telling them to leave and go broke in their own idiocy and signed it "your federal parents".
  
  I commented "No Jeff, the article was about Texas not California". Stunned angry silence ensued.
  1. sage 13 years ago
    
    Texas has natural resources, a huge port, a business friendly climate. It could do well on it's own, I'd guess. California is the same...except for the business friendly part.
    1. Stephdumas 13 years ago
      
      That reminds me of a comment I saw on City-Journal by a guy named Alan who mentionned then California is the new Michigan.
  2. J_B 13 years ago
    
    secession
sage 13 years ago

BTW, I keep clicking the Obama ad and entering "fakename@myballs.com" for an email address. I don't go any further than that, but I hope it's costing them something.
1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
  
  All you have to do is click the banner and they pay. The bigger ones at the top of the page cost the most.
  1. sage 13 years ago
    
    Good to know. Reason's making some money off teh Zeeero!
Groovus Maximus 13 years ago

Puerto Rico has nothing on the true America's Greece: The People's Golden Republic of California, currently 88 billion USD or so in debt. The sooner the San Andreas and Old Faithful have epic, earth shattering flatulence, the better off we will be.

Incidentally, a blink tag for TPGROC would have been really snazzy, Reason!
BakedPenguin 13 years ago

Attention, TEAM RED. Fortu?o is what an actual fiscal conservative looks like. Please make a note.
Banjos 13 years ago

Stanford police: There are no confirmed accounts of Neo-Nazis potrolling Sanford or: Why bloggers can go fuck themselves...except me, of course.
1. Banjos 13 years ago
  
  Dammit, *Sanford police
2. Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
  
  Mrs. sloopy! Congrats!
  
  Stanford police
  
  From what I understand about Stanford's PC campus, this post in not off the mark.
  
  An RC'z Law? Judges?
  1. Banjos 13 years ago
    
    Groooooooooooovus!!! Doc, I've missed you! It is great to see you around these parts again. I noticed that once you came back, Brooksie left...coincidence?
    1. Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
      
      I miss P Brooks, with his Krugabes and brusque, snarky commentary. 🙁
      
      The theory is: since he eschewed threading comments, he would eschew registration. It would be consistent, as Brookie is the epitome of defiance.
      1. Banjos 13 years ago
        
        If he doesn't return, I may have to break the law in his honor...or maybe just a HOA ordinance. God bless that wonderful ornery bastard.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        If he doesn't return, I may have to break the law in his honor...or maybe just a HOA ordinance.
        
        May I suggest streaking? I think sloop would approve, since I assume he would be streaking alongside ye. I'm sure the the HOA wouldn't mind.
        
        Banjos 13 years ago
        
        Sloop is having me watch golf, which is driving me to drink in the middle of the afternoon out of boredom...so streaking may not be out of the question.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        P Brooks would approve.
  2. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    An RC'z Law? Judges?
    
    Not funny/inadvertantly insightful enough. Sorry. We do have standards, you know.
3. Gannicus 13 years ago
  
  I don't see how this thing can end well. There's so much misinformation and outright lies being put out by parts of the media and the professional race baiters.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    It will end in more than one death, I'm pretty certain of that.
    
    If Zimmerman goes to trial and is found not guilty, there will be riots the likes of which we haven't seen since the Rodney King beating verdict.
    
    If Zimmerman is not brought to trial, the same will happen.
    
    If Zimmerman goes to trial and is found guilty then the riots will resemble those after a Lakers NBA Championship.
    
    Either way...it's gonna be bad, bad, bad.
    1. Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
      
      There is no way it will end well. Of this, I am convinced.
    2. Jake W 13 years ago
      
      It's either going to be an OJ moment or an Occupy moment. Either way, watching the MSM parrot the same racially-charged garbage afterwards will be a show.
sloopyinca 13 years ago

Holy shit! Louis Oosthuizen just double-eagled #2 to go to -10.
I'll never see a shot like that again.
1. Ryan 13 years ago
  
  Oh yeah? Check out this amazing shot.
MclaughlinPansy 13 years ago

my classmate's step-mother made $16036 the prior week. she is making income on the computer and got a $352300 home. All she did was get blessed and put to use the clues made clear on this link (Click on menu Home more information) http://goo.gl/yBoCw
1. Sevo 13 years ago
  
  MclaughlinPansy|4.8.12 @ 7:07PM|#
  "my classmate's step-mother made $16036 the prior week"
  
  A friend of my wife's hairdresser's uncle saw big foot last week!
  But his camera didn't work, kinda like the proof of your claim.
JeremyR 13 years ago

Isn't America, America's Greece?
1. Jake W 13 years ago
  
  *zing
yu100w 13 years ago

America's Greece

http://www.boyfriendlyrics.com/
Coach Outlet 13 years ago

http://www.coachoutletonlinepick.com/ Coach Outlet http://www.coachoutlettousa.com/ Coach Outlet online

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Reason.tv: Governor Luis Fortuno on How Puerto Rico Avoided Becoming "America's Greece"

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