infrastructure

Obama to Propose $50 Billion in Insfrastructure Spending

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President Obama is proposing a $50 Billion Infrastructure Plan:

Part of the plan being released today calls for the funding of a permanent infrastructure bank that would invest in projects most critical to the economy. The up-front investment would go to the nation's highway system and focus on modernizing the system while providing jobs. There also would be investment in the nation's bus and rail systems, including an overhaul of Amtrak's fleet. The final cog would be the modernization of the nation's air traffic control system.

Infrastructure, which is an investment in America, is sorely needed and has the potential to create jobs. That said, last spending on infrastructure, the government did not require two conditions, hire America and buy American, thus funds flowed out of the country instead of into the pockets of Americans.

Also, the bidding procedure for contracts was the same as the one used in Iraq. It's all well and good to invest in U.S. infrastructure, this is one of the most bang for the buck stimulus proposals out there. But the devil is in the details and will we see this government do Stimulus right right this time? Democrats are bad enough, but Republicans block anything that will help the American people and this economy at every turn.

AP says road projects from Stimulus haven't made a dent in unemployment

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Oh my, is this story embarassing:

Ten months into President Barack Obama's first economic stimulus plan, a surge in spending on roads and bridges has had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, an Associated Press analysis has found.

Spend a lot or spend nothing at all, it didn't matter, the AP analysis showed: Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation, raising questions about Obama's argument that more road money would address an "urgent need to accelerate job growth."

Harvard Had It Right on Obama's Economist Larry Summers

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Ouch! TPMcafe has a little piece on some Democrats, including one of my personal favs, Peter DeFazio, discussing Obama's economic policy advisers, especially chief economist Larry Summers.

DeFazio deemed it "very unfortunate" that former Clinton economic adviser Larry Summers has claimed a similar hold on Obama's ear. "Harvard had it right," the progressive Democrat quipped -- referring to the Ivy League university's jettisoning of Summers from its presidency in the wake of a scandal over his remarks on women's intellectual abilities.

In case you missed it, Summers claimed chicks can't do math and science because they are chicks. Right o!

Submarine telecom/datacom cables cut in Middle East -- another "good" reason to outsource to India/Asia ?

From someone I know in kuwait:

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Most of you by now have heard that several major submarine cables have been damaged and cut: Two in the Mediterranean Sea, and now one here in the Gulf (off the coast of Dubai). Here is what I've gathered so far from this outage...

These cables are critical, as they link several continents together, and route not just internet traffic, but phone communications. This outage affects almost the entire Middle East. Some internet providers are completely down, while others are limping along. And if you're on satellite, well good for you. The rest of us are screwed.

What isn't really clear is why the cables went down. The current story is that a ship dropped anchor in an unusual spot, and that's what triggered all this. That doesn't sound right to me. But we'll see. Regardless of what happened, it will be weeks before the region is returned to normal capacity.