Wealth Destruction - A Black Hole of Despair Devouring Our Dreams In the Night

A Black Hole of Despair
Devouring Our Dreams In the Night

For me, the most shocking part our Puerto Rico's ongoing recession (depression?), is the vast fortunes of wealth that have disappeared.  Plant closings are huge write-offs for most corporations.  Think of it, they literally write those resources off of their books.  Instant wealth destruction.  What once had value, now has none.

Here is another sad tale of the ever-vanishing value* of Puerto Rico:

Three Pharmaceutical Companies to Close Plants in Puerto Rico

Abbott Laboratories ($ABT) is cutting jobs, with plans to whack a plant in Puerto Rico. The company just won't say how many jobs are on the chopping block. Abbott spokesman Scott Stoffel mentioned plans to close a manufacturing plant in Barceloneta in mid-2015.  Abbott has about 1,500 employees across the island.  

The plant closure is another tough hit for that part of Puerto Rico. In November, Pfizer ($PFE) said it would shutter a plant in Barceloneta by 2017 but couldn't say how many employees will lose jobs as a result. It has three plants and about 2,700 employees on the island. 

At about the same time, Merck ($MRK) said it would cease production at an active pharmaceutical ingredient plant in Barceloneta late in 2014 and move the formulation and packaging done at the facility to a contractor. It also intends to move formulation operations at its plant in Arecibo to its Las Piedras facility, and all of that work will go to a contractor by the end of 2016, it said.

From FiercePharma.

wealth destruction = less wealth ≈ less value