Public Infrastructure

by Jay Pelosky

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post. View the original piece here.

Washington is all about the fiscal cliff these days. In Doha, Qatar, world leaders are negotiating over climate change. Federal debt and carbon emissions are indeed two big problems on the nation's front burner. But they are just the beginning.

As the fog of the election season lifts, America has a lot to worry about -- everything from competing economically with China to housing rapidly retiring baby boomers.

Today’s prolonged economic slump is fundamentally different from an ordinary recession. In the aftermath of a severe financial collapse, an economy is at risk of succumbing to a prolonged deflationary undertow. With asset prices reduced, the financial system damaged, unemployment high, consumer demand depressed, and businesses reluctant to invest, the economy gets stuck well below its full employment potential.

For much of the last three decades, policy debates in the United States have been dominated by a quixotic concern about deficits, debt, and demographics. This concern has distracted policy from fundamental economic issues that have much more direct bearing on economic well-being, most notably the growth (and bursting) of the housing bubble in the last decade. While large deficits can have a negative impact on economic growth, this impact has been hugely misrepresented in public debates.

At some point in the next 200 million years, according to Yale University scientists, the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates will collide at the North Pole. When they are eventually joined by Africa, the singular super-continent will re-emerge, reminiscent of the Pangea that existed hundreds of millions of years ago.

“The long-continued lag in building is a drag on all industry and trade. This presents an urgent problem which is the common concern of industry, labor, and government. All business needs the infusion of orders and the diffusion of purchasing power that come when building is thriving. Great numbers of people look directly or indirectly to the construction industry for employment. This industry, to a greater extent than any other, can put idle funds to work and thus speed up the circulation of the nation's money supply.

Is America still a land of promise?

The biblical metaphor was used in 1785 by George Washington, who described the new United States as a "second land of promise." More than a century later, the progressive journalist Herbert Croly wrote: "From the beginning the Land of Democracy has been figured as the Land of Promise."

America: home to Apple Inc., Google, Amazon, and a slew of other powerful and innovative companies that rule the world of technology. The United States can no doubt claim many of the globe’s pioneering big businesses, but there’s also evidence the country faces declining rates of entrepreneurship and ranks far behind many other nations in educating its young people.

Dana Goldstein gives us a lesson on why Chicago's teachers were picketing this week, and Alissa Black explores a new movement to harness government data and tech savvy citizens. Elizabeth Weingarten hosts.

Contents

I.  Overview
II.  The Story Begins with Oil & Gas
III.  Job Creation and Investment
IV.  The Catalyst for a Manufacturing Revival
V.  The Rise of New Industries
VI.  Shoring up America’s Fiscal Position
VII.  Infrastructure Investment is the Missing Piece of the Story
VIII.  Serious Obstacles Remain