Double Dip?

Well, it certainly seems like we may be on our way to our double dip recession. Jobless numbers continue to be well below what they need to be to indicate a recovery. Senators left for a break without extending benefits for the unemployed (the House passed the bill HR4213.) And deficit hawks in Congress have diminished the probability of another stimulus package being passed. Add to all of this the European financial turmoil and prospects of any recovery seem far-fetched at best.

The ever-worsening situation seems to have no end in sight. In fact, few proposals that deal with the crisis are even being discussed, probably because to do so would be an admission that fundamental system imbalances exist. But to most of us lay-people (non-economists), it seems quite obvious that things, in general, are not working.

This is still an opportunity to expand our understanding of our economic system and to address some of its fundamental problems. If I had to single out one factor that skews economic wisdom and clouds the views of most economists, it's evolution. Market gurus are oracles of sorts, they are constantly predicting trends based on historical data, and evaluating companies and markets to offer their best educated guesses as to performance and fundamentals. But for all of their trying, their models only work when it's assumed that markets don't evolve.

Evolution, the concept of constant change, is disruptive to prognostications of all sorts. Economies have to become more capable of adapting to change and so must societies. Our predispositions may never be correct since evolution is the constant. In Puerto Rico a student protest is demonstrating how social evolution may affect economic evolution.

In a strange but not altogether unexpected turn of events, austerity measures in Puerto Rico have led to one of the longest student protests in the history of its centenary university. The student leadership is represented by a group, not a single individual, and they manage to stay on point regardless of who is speaking. They are exploiting new media, social media, and local media to educate society and challenge government claims and actions. A consensus is beginning to arise that the students are charting new paths in Puerto Rico's political system and are educating the population on the power of democracy and social coalitions.

We may well be heading into a double dip recession, but we have the ability and responsibility to evolve and create. We must not stop creating and trying to evolve. It's not just hope that makes things better, it's effort, action, and time.