Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The hurricane damage and destruction faced by Puerto Rico will take an extended period of time to recover from — even if a huge influx of support comes from the mainland U.S. But even before that, the island was facing overwhelming debt and a pension crisis.

How did Puerto Rico reach this stage and what can be done to fix the problem? And would reducing debt create other complications?

We talked about that with economist Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.