The government and the banks usually don’t count Panama’s informal economy, but when anybody credible does so, it has about half of the national work force living on it. Selling sweet and cold stuff to those who pass by, a yuka patch, some banana stems and a few fruit trees in the yard, an occasional gig on the side — as much as some self-appointed “better people” may want to turn up their noses. those folks are outnumbered by those who live off of the informal economy.
Looking around at the local economy
by Eric Jackson, looking at his part of Panama
This morning’s (Sunday the 15th) edition of La Prensa led with a monumental story about big business and the government (we’ll get around to that in a bit) about three multi-billion-dollar arbitration cases brought by multinational mining companies whose operations or plans were shut down here by last year’s public outcry, a high court decision and legislation to ban open-pit mining for metals in this country. In her Sunday “Knockout” interview Flor Mizrachi talks with businessman, blogger and economist Felipe Argote about the evolving process and contents of efforts to reform the Panamanian social security system. It was worth buying a hard copy to get past the pay walls on those articles, but those were bigger and protracted over time looks. Here the editor, breaking in a new camera, glances around at the here and now in Anton municipal district, taking in hints of a more local economy that’s surely something of a microcosm of the larger national one.
Yes, there is new construction ongoing, as in these business premises going up by the Pan-American Highway in Anton. But new premises for an existing business, a business new to the area, a store looking for a buyer to start a business? Part of Panama’s overall economic malaise is unsold inventory, in real estate as well as in other things.
The roads are a mess. This part of the highway, going into Penonome from Anton, is crumbling and being repaired, causing monumental traffic jams. Also, however, giving some people and companies gainful employment. Does this reporter want to start pointing fingers and get into litigation about it? Safe to say that the previous government put off a lot of maintenance, AND that for a very long time there has been pilferage of materials and money from the nation’s public works budgets. The road between the country’s main drag and the barrio where the editor lives is a potholed mess, even though it was redone near the end of the Varela administration. Was the Varela era repair done properly, or just as best could be done on a poor foundation? The editor is not a forensic engineer, but has been around long enough to know some of the games that get played here.
One quick way to learn something about the economy at a glance, or several glances, is to see who is tryin gto sell what to whom. The ad space above this pedestrian walk over the highway in Anton is still vacant, as it usually has been since the depths of the COVID epidemic. But also read the newspapers, not just for the stories but to see the advertising or lack thereof. Is the editor one to on that basis call one or more of Panama’s dailies endangered? Let that one play out — some owners have deep pockets for the hard times. But it’s a terrible advertising market in Panama these days.
UDELAS, the specialized university that General Torrijos’s sister founded long ago, has just cut the ribbon on a project in the editor’s neighborhood, turning the abandoned old corregiduria into a holistic human services center, so they say. The problem is that there is this ongoing battle about who runs the university, which is playing out in the courts and meanwhile the faction holding onto power has massively fired the faculty and staff who oppose them. It’s a good idea and might actually come to fruition, no matter who wins. Hope springs eternal.
Contact us by email at thepanamanews@gmail.com
To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.
These links are interactive — click on the boxes
>
>
