The Economist (December 5)
“Europe and America have shown that King Coal can be dethroned.” Next Asia must step up to “topple coal.” Fortunately, this “is overwhelmingly in Asia’s interest to do so. Its people, infrastructure and agriculture are dangerously exposed to the droughts, flooding, storms and rising sea levels caused by climate change….. Coal’s days are numbered. The sooner it is consigned to museums and history books, the better.”
Tags: Agriculture, Asia, Coal, Dethroned, Droughts, Europe, Exposed, Flooding, Infrastructure, Sea levels, Storms, Topple, U.S.
Straits Times (October 9)
According to the World Economic Forum, “Singapore is the world’s most competitive economy,” scoring “84.8 out of a possible 100, beating the United States to the top spot in the ranking of 141 economies.” Of the 12 assessment pillars, Singapore ranked first in infrastructure, healthy life expectancy and labor markets. Overall, the U.S. ranked second and Japan placed sixth, just behind Switzerland.
Tags: Economy, Infrastructure, Japan, Labor markets, Life expectancy, Most competitive, Singapore, U.S., WEF
Wall Street Journal (March 10)
“The Venezuelan dictatorship is trying to use a nationwide power outage against its political opposition by claiming sabotage.” A more plausible reason is “the colossal failure… to invest in the country’s decrepit hydroelectric plants…. The blackout and the chaos that has ensued is a metaphor for the catastrophe known as Venezuela. Every aspect of the nation’s infrastructure, physical and institutional, has broken down.”
Tags: Blackout, Broken down, Chaos, Colossal failure, Dictatorship, Hydroelectric, Infrastructure, Power outage, Sabotage, Venezuela
Bloomberg (November 2)
China’s belt and road master plan “to project Chinese power, influence and trade across much of the world could well undermine all three.” The trillion-dollar global infrastructure scheme has gotten out of control. “A scaled-down, better-managed Belt and Road—guided more by economics and less by politics—should, as intended, promote growth and trade across the region and beyond. That would serve everybody’s interests.”
Tags: Belt and road, China, Economics, Growth, Influence, Infrastructure, Politics, Power, Trade
Bloomberg (May 27)
“The great deal maker has yet to make even a decent deal as president; he hasn’t negotiated anything on health care, immigration or infrastructure, and the trade negotiations with China may be a bust.” In Korea, Donald Trump’s “gut instincts” have resulted in a blunder that’s “worse than it looks: Kim Jong Un appears shrewd. China is stronger. And U.S. allies know not to trust Washington.”
Tags: Allies, Blunder, China, Deal maker, Health care, Immigration, Infrastructure, Kim Jong Un, Korea, Trade negotiations, Trump, Trust
The Straits Times (February 20)
“In spite of a substantial budget surplus,” Singapore is planning to raise taxes to meet “the challenges that lie ahead—in the form of financing healthcare in an ageing society, meeting infrastructure needs and ensuring security.” This approach starkly contrasts with the U.S., which has cut taxes despite running an enormous budget deficit, but fiscal sustainability has been “a mainstay of Singapore’s economic planning since independence.”
Tags: Budget surplus, Challenges, Deficit, Economic planning, Fiscal sustainability, Healthcare, Independence, Infrastructure, Security, Singapore, Taxes, U.S.
Gizmodo (January 26)
“We can’t rely on the market to create an ‘electric car revolution’ in Australia. Funding infrastructure, creating industry standards, legislating to reward and cheapen less-polluting cars, and educating the public are all part of the challenge.”
Tags: Australia, Education, EVs, Industry, Infrastructure, Legislation, Market, Pollution, Revolution, Standards
Bloomberg (March 3)
There is a “big problem with China’s bridge and tunnel addiction.” It looks unsustainable. “China spent more than $10.8 trillion on infrastructure from 2006 to 2015…. Outlays for roads, airports, ports, railways, and the like rose 17.4 percent last year, far outpacing the country’s 6.7 percent expansion in gross domestic product.” To maintain the pace, Beijing is promoting public-private partnerships (PPP), but these look “unstable.”
Tags: Addiction, Airports, Bridge, China, GDP, Infrastructure, Ports, PPP, Railways, Roads, Tunnel, Unstable
Institutional Investor (January 26)
“It’s not even been a week in office and the Trump administration has already managed to send shivers of excitement through the arcane world of infrastructure investment with talk of new domestic projects…. Not surprisingly, asset managers with infrastructure teams are jumping on the renewed interest in the asset class, holding press briefings and webinars to provide clarity.”
Tags: Asset class, Asset managers, Clarity, Excitement, Infrastructure, Investment, Projects, Trump
New York Times (December 30)
“Glory, glory, hallelujah! New Year’s Day is about to bring New Yorkers what many of their ancestors never lived to see: the opening of the Second Avenue subway.” Though it is set to open on schedule, the line is really “nearly a century overdue. It was dreamed up in the 1920s, was derailed by the Great Depression, by wars overseas and political battles at home, by the 1970s fiscal crisis, by dithering, distractions, diverted funds and the inertia that keeps big infrastructure projects forever on the drawing board.”
Tags: Ancestors, Great Depression, Hallelujah, Infrastructure, New York, Overdue, Subway
