Entering its eighth year in recession, Puerto Rico has poured considerable effort and energy into better-positioning the capsizing economy.

For one, Puerto Rico's government has launched a website to attract ideas from citizens, asking them to submit ideas on how to reverse the U.S. territory's bleeding economy. Governor Chief of Staff Ingrid Vila indicated that they'd like thoughts on how to prevent the mass exodus of skilled workers, strong businesses, among other things.

More than 450,000 people have left the island in the past decade, more than half after the year 2006. According to ABC News, the majority of expatriates settle in U.S. states, such as New York and Florida.

Only 41 percent of the population takes part of Puerto Rico's labor force, according to Vila, that's compared to U.S.'s 63 percent participation. The island of 3.67 million is battling a 15.2 percent employment rate.

Also, earlier this week, Puerto Rico announced that private investors will help to build a $350 million housing and commercial unit near the commonwealth's capital, San Juan. More than 180 homes will be built in Guaynabo, also a 350-room hotel and convention center, and the proposed project will take 10 years to complete, according Alejando Garcia Padilla. They also have plans to build other things, which should help to fuel the economy, and will lead to the creation of more than 5,800 jobs.

The development of these new ideas emerged just as Puerto Rico argues against a federal law that bans foreign vessels from engaging in coastwise shipping with Puerto Rico's trouble economy. The government makes claims that the territory is suffocating due to this law, and that is hindering economic recovery. Senate of Puerto Rico's Committee on Civil Rights, Citizen Participation and Social Economy Rossana Lopez said the GAO overlooks the fact that Puerto Rico "may be paying up to $1 billion in additional shipping costs for merchandise that arrives on the island from abroad and must first arrive at a U.S. mainland port."

The development of the website and the one-year property project also occur just after Puerto Rico's Gov. Alejandro García Padilla signed a bill authorizing the sale of $3.5 million in tax-free general obligation bonds, amidst questions of whether Puerto Rico should or shouldn't default are tossed around by financial cognoscenti. David Tawil of Maglan Capital told Latin Post that Puerto Rico wouldn't need to default in a recent interview, while Justin Vélez-Hagan of Fox New Latino said that Puerto Rico would default, and that it's a good thing; stating that $3.5 billion in IOUs on top of standing debt will essentially be ineffective. Nonetheless, bonds were sold in last week's effort to finance short-term debt with long-term bond obligations; bonds that function best when insured.

Bond insurance is something that purchasers of debts issued by junk-grade Puerto Rico should have acquired when taking on liability. Insured local debt trumped the $3.7 trillion municipal market last year for the first time since '07, prior to loss of top-credit grades due to financial turmoil.

The upgrades have an amplified effect on distressed issuers, the National increase alone lifted ratings on about $300 billion of bonds. According to Bloomberg.com, certain uninsured Puerto Rico bonds fell over the past year at more than five times the pace of those backed by Assured.

"The insurance protects you from all the downside risk from an impending restructuring that may or may not happen" in Puerto Rico, said Robert DiMella, who oversees about $7.5 billion of local debt as co-head of MacKay Municipal Managers in Princeton, New Jersey. "It's a very good way for investors to invest in Puerto Rico, and that's what we're doing."

Bond insurance represents a great value for the investor when discussing the very stressed credits like Puerto Rico, according to Patrick Early, chief muni analyst at Wells Fargo Advisors LLC in St. Louis, investors acquiring bond with higher ratings at cheaper costs.

The insurance comeback can be credited for helping to maintain value and helping to enhance financial flexibility. Yet, Vélez-Hagan, who is executive director of The National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce and economic policy researcher at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, has stated that growth for the commonwealth won't occur until it restructures itself -- which he believes means purposeful bankruptcy, which will allow the territory to break a cycle of "deficit-spending."

Restructuring their government may mean the commonwealth may reinherit some of its departed citizens, and they will attract more foreign revenue.

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