Thursday, July 9, 2009

Stimulating Infrastructure


The New York Times reported "the 100 largest metropolitan areas are getting less than half the money from the biggest pot of transportation stimulus money." Those 100 cities provide 75% of America's economic activity.

Private equity underwriters have billions in infrastructure funds available. They want to invest in projects capable of generating 15-20% low risk returns.

Socialize the losses (rural infrastructure development), privatize the profits (urban infrastructure projects).

The Obama stimulus plan was infrastructure light, compared to China's. The President has a $10 billion infrastructure bank aimed at financing public-private infrastructure projects. Under investing in cities is part of the plan, a back door franchise for the big money boys. Obama corporafornicates as well as Bush.