Why Now?

Below quotes from Tom Evslin @ Seeking Alpha on anti-cycle investments in new infrastructures to support the economy. Have heard them before but his concise words are 'right on the money'.


"Rural electrification and the Eisenhower Defense Highway System (the Interstates) made us the country we are today. Both involved subsidies meaning that urban areas (which were already electrified and already had highways) subsidized the buildout to the rest of the country. Both the urban areas and the rural areas benefitted."

"When we rebuild highways and bridges (as we must and will), we just get back to where we should have been. When we build a communication infrastructure which is both universal and the best in the world, we build a path to the future. By the way, when we rebuild the roads it would be dumb not to make them smart roads with mobile communication everywhere available; when we rebuild our electrical grid, it's got to be a smart grid with photons of information guiding the use of electrons of energy."

"Government investments ought to be made counter cyclically both because they're cheaper then and because they cushion the pain of private contraction. Clearly, this is such a time."

Source: Seeking Alpha