For the first time in history Puerto Rico has gone into default after the island’s development bank announced that it was only able to make a partial payment on its US$72 billion debt. The island has undergone years of economic turmoil produced mainly by the 2007-2010 recession and housing crisis in the United States. Governor Alejando Garcia Padilla says this is a historic moment in what he has described as a “death spiral.” Critics argue that the government has failed to increase revenues by taxing multinational corporations.