Professor Kreuger does not acknowledge that the prime issue facing Puerto Rico is its colonial status. The history of Puerto Rico is rife with examples of US companies, especially Big Pharma, coming into this island nation and exploiting the human and natural resources of the island at will. Further, it is unforgivable that so few people know the history of Puerto Rico's incorporation into the US as a territory. Surveys in the US suggest that many Americans think that Puerto Ricans need a passport to enter the country. This despite the long and significant sacrifice that Puerto Ricans have made in fighting US occupational wars over more than a century. While some of the common-sense policy suggestions made by Professor Kreuger (Jones Act exemption) should be adopted, it is disingenuous to suggest that the widespread poverty and underemployment of Puerto Ricans on the island is due to "overly generous" labor contracts. There is no mention in this article of the role of US bond holders in exacerbating the financial crisis in the island after 2009. There has been little growth in Puerto Rico for over 20 years before Hurricane Maria. Professor Stiglitz and other economists have provided a compelling narrative for the role of US financial market credit extension and greed, in bringing the island's fragile budgetary system into default. http://cepr.net/publications/briefings/testimony/puerto-rico-needs-economic-recovery-first-not-structural-reforms-and-debt-service-extraction

Let's start rebuilding Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rican people and have a national conversation about the US continuing colonial occupation of this island nation. Let's inform mainland citizens on the history and obligations that necessarily come with keeping the current "territorial" status of Puerto Rico. Until the full complement of information on both the past and present conditions of the island are well known, there will be no political will to change anything concerning the US relationship with the island.