The show Seinfeld puts it best when explain double dipping: “It’s like putting your whole mouth right in the dip. Look, from now on when you take a chip, just take one dip and end it.” But this article isn’t about the socially-peculiar moments when you catch some double dipping at a party, rather it’s about the near future of our economy. Probabilities for a “double dip” in the market have definitely lowered over the past year or so, but we are not clear by a long shot. The status today stands much like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Has anyone ever heard of a grapefruit and ice cream diet? Well years ago many people foolishly fell for this yummy alternative to losing weight; this idea has always interested me for the most obvious reasons. Why would anyone think that grapefruit and ice cream would somehow sculpt your body into a god or goddess? As an economics major many people feel free to talk about investment and opening share their personal strategies, hoping that I can shed light in some form. Most people feel that they have found the Holy Grail in predicting how stocks fluctuate, varying from “playing the earnings report” to “researching what top stock brokers suggest.” In doing so almost every person feels that their return will be fairly quick and profitable. What most people forget is the basic and essential rule to investing, patience and patience. No that is not a typo, in reality people need to understand that patience through long term investing is the only rational way to win in financial markets. But the thought of giving up consumption now forces us to embrace quick and dirty methods to investing, and are shocked when they do not pan out, just like magical grapefruit and ice cream diet.