• What to do with all those big gleaming spaces that once housed (now-closed) car dealerships? Many are being repurposed as restaurants, schools, day care centers, and even yoga studios. (AP)
• Meanwhile, are the complexities of modern car models stumping independent mechanics, and even pushing them to the point of obsolescence? (AP)
• Over in Russia, many analysts believe that the recession has ended (yeah, they say the same thing over here). What’s up for the country in 2010? Infrastructure spending, on areas like electricity and transportation (which the Russians apparently call an “embarrassment industry” — we’ll refrain from judgment). (Moscow Times)
• The California water crisis is about to go from “minor crisis” to “major crisis,” with recent droughts leaving water levels at half of what they need to be to sustain the state’s usage. (60 Minutes)
• U.S. News & World Reports lists “Civil Engineer” as one of the 50 best careers of 2010, with the following plug: “With a vast array of jobs, your duties might entail traffic concerns on residential streets, wetlands management, or huge construction projects like skyscrapers or stadiums. Jobs tend to be stable, since infrastructure isn’t optional…” We heartily agree. (USN)
• And finally, for Maryland residents, here are your top 10 transportation stories of the decade. (Baltimore Sun)
Lets hope Civil Engineer is a ‘hot’ job prospect. I’m a design tech with 16 years in the traffic field and have been one of the around 20-25% of the workforce laid off over the last year or so in the area.
I worry a bit when I saw something on the WSJ that said the ‘stimulus’ should not be spent on yesterdays infrastructure and should be focused on things like fibre optic infrastructure and such
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574572230780152344.html
Here is the first few paragraphs of the article ‘Put Down that Shovel’ by Andy Kessler
The House has passed a $154 billion jobs bill, and the administration has announced a plan to spend $50 billion of repaid TARP money to “create” jobs—this time its green jobs, “shovel ready” infrastructure projects ($27.5 billion for highway construction and repair) and a tax credit for small businesses.
More infrastructure? Recycling Great Depression-era projects is lame. My advice? Put down that shovel! It’s time to try something else.
We’re in a knowledge economy now; we use high-tech tools to efficiently and effectively design, make, market and sell. Building roads and bridges willy-nilly won’t make us more productive; and without increases in productivity and the associated corporate profits, there can be no sustainable job creation, no increase in standards of living, and no real economic recovery.
Given that real tax cuts are off the table and a new stimulus (even if it isn’t called that) is inevitable, the best we can hope for is to use the power of the government to clear a path that private enterprise can’t, via one-off projects that end and disband. Stop thinking concrete and massive construction projects. Think small—photons, electrons and proteins. Here are six ideas…..
A bit more on the post above….
I am not sure if it is best for government spending to ‘stimulate’ private enterprise and prod productivity improvements when there are other government iniatives that probably would be of more long term benefit to business than this type of spending. Concrete and asphalt are still the types of investments that governement should be promoting and getting out of the way of new technological innovations in business.