If you think about the California gold rush in 1848, the state of California was sparsely populated as the bulk of the population of the US lived on the east coast. Trains tracks had not been laid across the US and people had to travel on horse or oxen drawn carts or take a ship. If you took a ship from New York it had to go around the tip of South America and come north to California. It was a long journey and anyone who has been on a long journey asks is there a short cut? It turns out Central America offered a short cut and eventually the country of Panama was chosen.

The French had tried to build a canal, but there were many obstacles and many of their people died of sickness. The US overtook the process and completed the canal and ships had a short cut. At the time, the US took ownership of the Canal Zone and when they did, they did not ask about whose land it was or being used for, the land was going to be a canal, and the canal was built.

In an article by Peter Goodman of the New York Times News Service, the canal has a problem – all the water in the canal is fresh water but there was been a long standing drought in Panama. It used to be 36-38 ships a day could pass, but that has fallen to 22 ships a day. Those totals meant over a year 13,000 ships most them load with containers went through, the totals have fallen to 10,000.

Given the number of containers, there are many ideas of what to do? Build a railway to off load some of the containers on one side and put them back on the other side? Gain access to more fresh water?

Vasquez Morales is the administrator of the Panama Canal which is both the economic heart of the region and a central artery for global trade. More than half of the containers moving from Asia to the East Coast ports passes through the Panama Canal.

The Canal is 80 kilometers and typically takes 12 hours to go through. The canal is a series of locks which function as ladders to Lake Gatun and then down again. In terms of water usage, a single ship needs about 50 million gallons of water. The waters of Lake Gatun is the source of more than half of Panama’s drinking water for more than 4.4 million people.

This year there was rain and the fresh water rose in the Canal making Mr. Morales happy as he likes it when there is a rainy day.

Lower water levels make the Lake more salty, which is something to avoid. There is a solution to build a dam on the Rio Indio. At the time of building the canal, governmental mindset was this was an economic solution to our problems and people in the area have to adjust. Now days, it is important to talk to the people who would be affected by the dam as lands would be flooded. Government will decide what is more important and what compensation is offered.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, most of us have grown up with the idea of economic progress and those of us who benefited still believe that economic progress is a good thing. As years go by we can ask was building particular infrastructure a good thing? sometimes the answer was probably no, but it was in the name of economic progress. As times evolve the number of stakeholders change and compensation levels change, if the company you invest in has evolved, that is a good thing. There is no perfect answer for economic progress but one hopes benefits are seen by the majority than the few. Sometimes owning shares in profitable companies allow for seeing the options for all.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.