Krugman Says: Spend on Infrastructure

We’ve heard a great many calls for increased infrastructure spending in the United States. The ASCE scorecards on American infrastructure paint a pretty bleak picture, and we were reminded of that last year after a major bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed. The 2005 ASCE scorecard gave its highest marks to the waste management sector, in which geosynthetics are required. And earlier this year the Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA) announced huge strides in working with Congressional legislators to have geosynthetics considered for requirement in other sectors, such as water management. Infrastructure was pushed higher in the public debate this morning with the publication of Paul Krugman’s latest column in the New York Times. Krugman is the Princeton professor and Times columnist who was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics. Regarding the ragged state of the American economy, Krugman argues for the need of government spending now. And he idenitifies infrastructure as one of the main, necessary targets. He writes: “The usual argument against public works as economic stimulus is that they take too long: by the time you get around to repairing that bridge and upgrading that rail line, the slump is over and the stimulus isn’t needed. Well, that argument has no force now….So let’s get those projects rolling.” Read the rest of Krugman’s op-ed column.