Stephen Mihm, Columnist

Congress Goofed. Puerto Rico Pays.

Bankruptcy was an option until 1984. That's when a drafting error became law.

December 3, 2015 at 5:34 PM UTC

Corrected

December 4, 2015 at 2:14 AM UTC

Stephen Mihm, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, is coauthor of “Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance.”

Fishing for answers.
Photographer: Christopher Gregory/Bloomberg

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This week, Puerto Rico managed to make its latest payment on its crushing debts, but all bets are off as to whether it will eventually default on its many obligations.

Attempts to restructure more than $100 billion worth of liabilities have run into serious obstacles, as legal challenges mounted by aggrieved bondholders invalidated legislation intended to ease the burden.