Bloomberg Nov 22, 08 12:14 PM CST
(Newser)
-
Barack Obama says he will move quickly once in office to enact an ambitious, two-year plan to save or create 2.5 million jobs, Bloomberg reports. Obama announced his plan in his weekly radio address, where he also warned that “we risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further.” About 1.2 million jobs have already been lost this year, and the trend could continue.
More »
ANALYSIS
Infrastructure spending is critical, but not on bridges to nowhere
New York Times Nov 19, 08 10:02 AM CST
(Newser)
-
Recently the House passed an $18 billion infrastructure bill, and Barack Obama has indicated that he'll ask for billions more in spending to create jobs while improving the nation's roads and bridges. But as New York Times columnist David Leonhardt writes, insufficient investment is only part of the problem. At the moment federal projects aren't linked to any goals, such as reducing congestion or pollution; instead we're building "Bridges to (Almost) Nowhere."
More »
Economists increasingly look to infrastructure spending for job creation
Los Angeles Times Nov 9, 08 5:11 PM CST
(Newser)
-
Once dismissed as too slow to address America’s quick slide into crisis, New Deal-esque public works projects are becoming increasingly attractive as long-term economic troubles look likely to set in, the Los Angeles Times reports. Infrastructure spending will likely be a major component of the upcoming Obama-backed, multibillion-dollar stimulus package Democrats will propose to Congress.
More »
OPINION
A National Mobility Project would create jobs, leaving lasting impact: Brooks
New York Times Oct 31, 08 12:00 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Panic is afoot, so of course, Congress is bearing down on another stimulus package, though the last one seems to have missed the mark. These “politically designed, ad hoc” measures “amount to an economic sugar rush,” David Brooks writes in the New York Times . If he’s wise, the next president will eschew checks for one essential project: rebuilding America’s transit infrastructure.
More »
OPINION
No easy task to convince Congress to sacrifice its own self-interest
Time Oct 30, 08 9:53 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
What’s on the front burner for a hypothetical Obama administration? Most of Washington seems to be jockeying for spots in the Cabinet, but Joe Klein of Time points out that Barack Obama (or John McCain) will be the first president since FDR to inherit neither peace nor prosperity. Obama’s top priority, “a government-propelled transition to an alternative-energy economy,” addresses both.
More »
Decades-long projects completed as industry turns down
New York Times Oct 30, 08 7:00 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
In the boom years of the last decade, cities across America broke ground on major airport expansions, from additional runways to new terminals. Now those projects are being completed—just as air travel has slowed and hundreds of planes are being grounded. Flights may be less congested, writes the New York Times , but travelers are paying for the new capacity through even higher fares.
More »
Last year's winter depleted reserves
USA Today Oct 6, 08 3:43 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Road salt is stressing state and municipal budgets as shortages drive prices up well past what local governments have paid in the past, USA Today reports. A harsh winter last year left many states with no salt reserves to carry over, meaning they have to fully restock at inflated prices. New Hampshire is paying $10 million for salt that cost $8 million last year.
More »
OPINION
Counterinsurgency expert may need to learn a few new tricks to quell Taliban rebellion
Times (UK) Oct 6, 08 2:55 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Gen. David Petraeus faces an uphill battle in replicating the successes of the Iraq surge in Afghanistan, Michael Evans writes in the Times of London, “because the economic, social and political conditions are so different.” Afghanistan doesn’t have nearly the natural, fertile resources, and neither the US nor NATO allies can provide much in the way of troop reinforcements.
More »
Baghdad aggressively courts international investment
Der Spiegel Jul 22, 08 12:00 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
With security and stability on the rise, Iraq’s government is turning its attention, and its generous budget, toward reconstruction. That’s led to some big opportunities for Western businesses, which are scrambling to get a cut of the country’s $25 billion reconstruction budget. Iraq, which lacks the resources to rebuild on its own, is just as eager to make deals, reports Der Spiegel.
More »
OPINION
It's necessary, and McCain is better suited for the job: Brooks
New York Times Jul 18, 08 10:17 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
With daunting issues demanding immediate action—energy, the markets, and crumbling infrastructure to name but a few—the US is about to enter a phase of "government activism," writes David Brooks in the New York Times . Bad news for John McCain, right? Maybe not. As past periods of great change show, it is more often the conservatives leading the way in such eras .
More »
Aging infrastructure is barely coping with severe weather
Chicago Tribune Jun 12, 08 8:45 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
The worst flooding in 15 years has exposed some serious vulnerabilities in the Midwest's aging infrastructure, the Chicago Tribune reports. Levees, bridges, and dams, some a century old, are barely coping with severe storms—while some are collapsing completely. Dikes and levees broke in several states last week after torrential rains, destroying homes and flooding farmland.
More »
Poor infrastructure, focus on oil exploration behind costly supply issues
Christian Science Monitor Jan 24, 08 8:07 AM CST
(Newser)
-
Alaska—home of America's largest energy reserves—is facing a major energy crunch. The problem is a lack of infrastructure to get natural gas where it needs to be, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "It's the goofiest thing in the world, to be sitting on top of some of the biggest energy reserves in the world and have these challenges," one official says.
More »
$3.5B to replace schools and firehouses languishing in accounts
USA Today Jan 11, 08 3:20 AM CST
(Newser)
-
Billions of dollars in FEMA aid earmarked for rebuilding infrastructure pulverized by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes have yet to be spent on thousands of important projects such as replacing schools and firehouses, USA Today reports. Out of $4.5 billion in aid to Louisiana and Mississippi, only $1 billion has been spent. Much of the rest is sitting in state accounts until local authorities can get through tangles of local and federal red tape.
More »
Prospect writer says Dems can drown movement in bathtub
American Prospect Aug 8, 07 6:08 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Democrats have never been so well positioned to sell big-government liberalism—as the other side looks pathetically out of step with Americans’ desires to expand health care and bolster infrastructure, says the American Prospect ’s Paul Waldman. After the Minnesota bridge collapse, the public is ready for the party that says “we’re all in it together” rather than “we’re all on our own.”
More »