Washington Post (September 6)
“Federal debt incurred to fund current consumption…is in effect a tax on future generations….But debt incurred to finance infrastructure modernization and repair is different. It creates… a long-term asset (the highway, railroad, energy transmission grid or airport such spending buys). It’s perfectly fair to spread the financing costs of those assets across the generations of taxpayers who will enjoy their use.”
Tags: Asset, Current consumption, Fair, Federal debt, Financing costs, Future generations, Infrastructure, Tax
Washington Post (May 27)
“China is attempting to steal a march on its neighbors by rapidly constructing airstrips, ports and other infrastructure on reclaimed land in one of the most sensitive maritime areas in Asia—one with multiple overlapping sovereignty claims. While it probably cannot be stopped, the project should be fully exposed—and China’s attempts to restrict air and sea traffic near its installations decisively rejected.”
Tags: Airstrips, Asia, China, Infrastructure, Ports, Reclaimed land, Sovereignty claims
Washington Post (May 13)
“Amtrak long ago should have installed automatic safeguards against reckless driving on a route like the Northeast Corridor, which is heavily trafficked and passes through dense urban centers.” The fatal Amtrak derailment provides “lessons about the United States’ negligent stewardship of its roads, rails, bridges and tunnels.”
Tags: Amtrak, Derailment, Infrastructure, Negligent, Reckless, Safeguards, Stewardship, U.S., Urban
Institutional Investor (July 30)
“As the planet becomes more crowded and as many of its inhabitants enjoy ever higher standards of living, the stresses on our economy and environment will deepen. The global consumer class is forecast to grow by 3 billion in the next 30 years. To stave off unwanted outcomes affecting global stability, we will have to make fundamental changes in the ways we approach energy, infrastructure, development, agriculture, health care and social safety nets.”
Tags: Agriculture, Consumers, Crowded, Development, Economy, Energy, Environment, Health care, Infrastructure, Planet, Safety nets, Stability, Standard of living, Stresses
Euromoney (June Issue)
The African Development Bank’s 50th Anniversary brought much introspection, but infrastructure is only one problem hindering “meaningful continental integration.” Non-physical barriers present another. “Rules and regulations have not been harmonized within regions. Generally speaking, African countries trade more with Europe than they do with each other; even where roads are good, rent-seeking opportunities widely plague popular trade routes, with officials hoping to benefit from bribes at the expense of their neighbours.”
Tags: African Development Bank, Bribes, Europe, Infrastructure, Integration, Non-physical barriers, Officials, Regions, Regulations, Rent-seeking, Rules, Trade
Investment Week (May 19)
At just 3.6%, Japan’s unemployment rate is extremely low and this should promote inflation. “Labour shortages have already driven wages higher for part-time workers. Adding to this, the demand to provide new infrastructure for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and the need to replace equipment should also serve to further stimulate the economy.” The OECD has forecast that “only Japan, New Zealand, and Israel are expected to grow faster than their previously forecasted GDPs in 2014.”
Tags: 2020 Olympics, Economy, Equipment, GDP, Inflation, Infrastructure, Israel, Japan, Labor, New Zealand, OECD, Shortage, Tokyo, Unemployment rate, Wages, Workers
Euromoney (April Issue)
“Blackouts have become so widespread on the island of Mindanao that social-media users have taken to calling the energy secretary the secretary of darkness.” This highlights the need for infrastructure, not just in the Philippines, but throughout much of ASEAN where the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates “infrastructure projects will require sustained annual investment of approximately $60 billion a year to 2020.” Banking giant HSBC believes “demand in Asia as a whole might reach $11.5 trillion by 2030.”
Tags: ADB, Asean, Asia, Blackouts, Energy, Infrastructure, Investment, Mindanao, Philippines, Social media, Widespread
The Economist (March 22)
“Global spending on basic infrastructure—transport, power, water and communications—currently amounts to $2.7 trillion a year when it ought to be $3.7 trillion. The gap is almost as big as South Korea’s GDP. And it is likely to grow fast.” To close the gap, governments need to step forward, and new ways need to be found to coax private capital investment in infrastructure.
Tags: Communications, Gap, GDP, Government, Infrastructure, Investment, Power, Private capital, South Korea, Spending, Transport, Water
Financial Times (November 3)
“Some kinds of public investment bring very high returns for the rest of the economy–such as spending on basic scientific research or fixing infrastructure bottlenecks–and they are under grave threat from today’s swingeing spending cuts in the US.” Austerity is reigning in public sector capital investment, which “has dropped to just 3.6 per cent of US output compared with a postwar average of 5 per cent.”
Tags: Austerity, Bottlenecks, Capital investment, Cuts, Economy, Infrastructure, Output, Postwar, Public sector, Returns, Scientific research, Spending, U.S.
Forbes (September 8)
“As for Olympic infrastructure, the Japanese are famously good at meeting deadlines, which should come in handy when state-of-the-art new facilities need to be built. Another factor is Tokyo’s mass transit system, which in many ways is the world’s most sophisticated – indeed far more sophisticated than it was in the 1980s, when it was already well ahead of most Western cities.”
Tags: Deadlines, Facilities, Infrastructure, Japan, Mass transit, Olympics, Sophisticated, Tokyo
