Public Infrastructure

Battle For the 'Burbs

Ron Tang — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:34:00 -0400

* This article is adapted from Reihan Salam's and Ross Douthat's Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.

It was only four years ago that conservatives -- and a great many liberals -- were convinced that the Democratic party was doomed to become a purely regional institution: "a national party no more," to borrow the title of Georgia Democrat-turned-Bush supporter Zell Miller's 2003 memoir. Pundits brandished county-by-county maps showing blue enclaves drowning in a sea of red; they talked up the growth of GOP-leaning regions and constituencies and the daunting demographic… more

Redressing America's Public Infrastructure Deficit

Economic Growth — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:49:00 -0400

Chairman, Oberstar, Representative Mica, and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today on the question of "financing infrastructure investments."

Over the past several decades, we have accumulated a sizeable public infrastructure deficit. As a result, a variety of infrastructure bottlenecks-traffic congested roads, clogged ports, and an antiquated air traffic system, to mention just a few-have begun to undercut our economy's efficiency and undermine our quality of life.

One of the reasons for this infrastructure deficit is that our system for financing infrastructure has become increasingly inadequate with the passage of time and has not kept up with the practices of… more

Tapped Out

Ron Tang — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:51:00 -0400

To paraphrase an old axiom: You don’t buy water, you only rent it. So why did Americans spend nearly $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, when we could have guzzled tap water at up to about one ten-thousandth the cost? The facile answer is marketing, marketing and more marketing, but Elizabeth Royte goes much deeper into the drink in “Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It,” streaming trends cultural, economic, political and hydrological into an engaging investigation of an unexpectedly murky substance. Partway through her undoctrinaire book, Royte, a lifelong fan of tap water, refills… more

Financing America’s Infrastructure

Communications — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:48:00 -0400

Today the New America Foundation released a policy paper by Douglas Rediker and Heidi Crebo-Rediker, co-directors of the New America Foundation's Global Strategic Finance Initiative. The executive summary is pasted below. Also, see a PDF of the entire policy paper: http://www.newamerica.net/files/Financing_America_Infrastructure.pdf

Contact: Erin Drankoski, 202-997-8727, drankoski@newamerica.net. For further information on New America's Global Strategic Finance Initiative and Economic Growth Program, click here.

Executive Summary

America's basic infrastructure is outdated, worn, and in some cases, failing. Most experts agree that it is inadequate for meeting the demands of the 21st-century global economy. If we are to remain competitive, we must… more

Financing America’s Infrastructure

Ron Tang — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:41:00 -0400

America’s basic infrastructure is outdated, worn, and in some cases, failing. Most experts agree that it is inadequate for meeting the demands of the 21st-century global economy. If we are to remain competitive, we must invest in capital assets like roads, ports, bridges, mass transit, water systems, and broadband infrastructure. Many other countries -- both rich and poor -- see investing in infrastructure as imperative for economic survival and success in an increasingly competitive economic environment. But the United States has lagged in infrastructure investment, in both relative and absolute terms. We are spending less than 2 percent of GDP… more

Democratizing Capital

Ron Tang — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:53:00 -0400

Below is a longer version of the article published in The Nation. For the version appearing in The Nation, please click here.

Historical analogies are never exact. Yet many of the choices we have before us today are similar to ones that an earlier generation of progressives faced as the 1932 election approached. As we do today, the progressives of the 20th century confronted a society beset by a huge gap between classes and an economy laid flat by the bursting of the speculative excesses of the previous decade. To be sure, our economy is nowhere near Depression levels… more

Sherle Schwenninger in Civil Engineering Magazine | 'The Infrastructure Crisis'

Communications — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:15:00 -0500

New America in the News:

The Infrastructure Crisis (Civil Engineering Magazine)

... The fact that the infrastructure has not been a national priority is evident from key economic data. From 1950 to 1970, for example, the United States devoted 3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to infrastructure spending; since 1980, however, spending on infrastructure has been cut by a third, to just 2 percent of GDP, notes Sherle R. Schwenninger, the New York City–based director of the economic growth program of the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank. The result has been a huge shortfall of needed investments, explains Schwenninger. ...

At present, infrastructure spending often gets crowded out by “other pressing expenditures that are more day to day” in the federal government’s annual budgetary fights, notes the New America Foundation’s Schwenninger, who wrote about the need for a capital budget in Ten Big Ideas for a New America, a report issued by that group in February 2007. But a capital budget would end these battles over distinguishing a capital expenditure from an operating expense and enable the nation to spread the costs of capital improvements over time rather than delay such investments to keep within annual budgetary limits, Schwenninger explains. more

Whither the American Economy?

Communications — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:30:00 -0500

A New America Event
11/30/2007 - 8:30am

Responding to the damage caused by the slowdown in housing, the subprime mortgage crisis, and fears of a U.S. recession, the New America Foundation held a national policy forum on the need for a new era of public investment on Friday, November 30, 2007.

Despite the recent economic slowdown, New America Foundation board member Bernard L. Schwartz opened the conference with an optimistic message. The dynamism of the American economy, Schwartz argues, bolstered by robust public investment, can overcome present challenges. Schwartz and Economic Growth Program director Sherle Schwenninger outline a strategy for rebuilding the American economic engine in “Public Investment Works,” which appears in the fall issue of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.

Video of Schwartz's opening presentation is available at right. Videos of the other presentations and panels -- as well as presentation materials, the policy papers released at this event, and other details -- are included below.

Johnson Presentation

Panel 1: How Hard Will the Fall Be?

Lachman Presentation

Panel 2: Shaking
It Off?

Conference Papers

The Macroeconomic Considerations of a Public Investment Strategy
by James Galbraith
James Galbraith examines the depressing effects of the slowdown in housing, the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis, and the inter-connected problems of failing infrastructure and long-term climate change.

Back to Basics: A Pro-Growth Public Investment Strategy
by Joel Kotkin
Joel Kotkin argues that the era of asset price inflation—the housing and stock market bubbles—has masked a perilous hollowing out of public infrastructure, the key to sustained and equitable economic growth.

Conference Presentation Materials

Presentation Slides from Simon Johnson's Kickoff to Panel 1

Presentation Slides from Desmond Lachman's Kickoff to Panel 2

Participant Spotlight

Saviors of the Citi
by Zach Karabell, Wall Street Journal
November 30, 2007

"The recent announcement that Citibank received a cash infusion of $7.5 billion from Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund was greeted with a mixture of relief and bewilderment by the financial markets." read more (subscription required)

Time to Stand Up to Wall Street
By Steve Pearlstein, The Washington Post
October 31, 2007

"Remember all those stories about how the nose dive in financial markets was the first big test for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the academic economist who was still developing his feel for the interplay between the central bank and Wall Street?" read more

Back to Basics: A Pro-Growth Public Investment Strategy

Economic Growth — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:32:00 -0500

For more than a decade, rising asset prices have driven the economy, benefiting the wealthy but doing relatively little to improve either the economic status of the majority of Americans or the country’s overall competitiveness. Rising stock and housing prices created staggering short-term increases in wealth for some, but did little to bolster the nation’s preeminence in technology, industry, or agriculture.

In order to retool the economy and generate balanced, robust job growth, the government should focus on rebuilding and enhancing the nation’s energy, transportation, and communications infrastructure. Judicious investment in renewing and creating critical public goods… more

Sustaining an Infrastructure for Success

Articles — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:34:00 -0400

In the wake of infrastructure related tragedies that struck Minnesota and New Orleans, political leaders have demonstrated once again that they do not understand the benefits of public investment. Mistakenly seeing only the financial burden of public investment and ignoring the future returns, they have failed to allocate enough public funds to adequately repair America’s roads, bridges, railways and electric grids. As a consequence, America is stopped short of reaching its full economic potential.

The costs of our crumbling infrastructure include wasted fuel, traffic delays and clogged ports. Congestion on America’s roads results in losses between $70 to 78 billion every… more