Go over to The Big Picture and take a look at the graphs of the effects of the stimulus spending has been done since 2009. Taking special note of the first graph of public construction highway, street, and educational spending my immediate reaction was how similar it was to the effects of “Cash for Clunkers”. As I’ve said before, if you’re going to time-shift spending, time-shift from a point at which the spending will actually be growing. What appears to have happened is that what was boosted in 2009 has collapsed in 2011.
The graphs should have broken out federal from state/local spending to better examine the issues of concern. I’ll just say anecdotally, the highways and interstates around here look fine. The street my house is on is starting to deteriorate badly. It was on the city’s top ten list of streets to redo before the recession; I think I’ll survive though.
Beside time-shifting, I think someone should analyze the impact of material costs from the stimulus. If the feds buy up the asphalt, doesn’t that make it more expensive for local government to get asphalt, or builders to buy shingles?
I don’t know what it’s like where you are, PD, but hereabouts anything but very minor patching is contracted out, typically to one of more of a very select group of bidders.
The issue of materials costs is an interesting one and worth further investigation. I wonder if we bought high.
“I think someone should analyze the impact of material costs from the stimulus. If the feds buy up the asphalt, doesn’t that make it more expensive for local government to get asphalt, or builders to buy shingles?”
You are correct, sir. Everyone wants to narrowly focus on what govt stimulus spending is supposed to do without considering knock on and unintended effects. That’s why the multiplier is so disappointing.
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I’m starting to hear the meme. There was never an infrastructure stimlus; my brother-in-law didn’t work overtime for over a year in highway construction; we were never at war with Libya.
@PD Shaw
I’d be happier if your brother worked overtime two or three years, not just “over a year.” Whatever was spent on construction of the stimulus funds was way less than it should have been. There’s two trillion dollars of work that could/should get done, according to ASCE (http://www.asce.org/). That type of spending, and the jobs it would create, would have the multiplier impact we need.