Puerto Rico currently has a per capita debt load of $19,000 and its 2013 deficit was around $2.2 billion. In the midst of a prolonged recession, there has been widespread debate on how to solve the debt crisis. Justin Vélez-Hagan, Public Policy Ph.D. student and executive director of The National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce, co-authored an article published in Forbes that suggested bankruptcy might be the only solution to reforming the economy. “Puerto Rico has to restructure. They can’t keep borrowing at 8 and 9%, raising taxes on the only ones paying any, and chasing away its brightest contributors to the …