Stephen Baker's Blog - infrastructure

Vox Stimuli

I harvested some of your ideas and put them into the BusinessWeek story on Vox Stimuli. It's out this week. Here's the intro: Just imagine. A half-trillion dollars (or maybe more) pops up in your bank account along with an assignment: Your job is to spend that money on the country's behalf, jump-starting the sick economy and creating jobs. Where do you begin? Over the l… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on January 16, 2009 at 8:12am — 3 Comments

Send your stimulus tweeks to BW blog

If you're a Twitterer and you feel like weighing in on the issues we're covering here, simply include #voxstimuli in your tweets, and they'll show up on our VoxStimuli blog Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on January 7, 2009 at 12:17pm — 1 Comment

Broadband stimulus: $10 billion investment=half a million jobs

BusinessWeek Economist Mike Mandel writes that a broadband investment in the econ stimulus package could create hundreds of thousands of tech jobs. This is important, because the efficiencies that technology bring often lead to losses in jobs--which is not what this economy needs right now. Mandel writes: This shortfall in communications jobs,… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on January 6, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

If Obama's tax cuts eat into stimulus spending, what goes first?

I'm assuming that if Obama cuts taxes by $300 billion, stimulus spending falls. For starters, I'd be happy if Obama and Co pulled the plug on ethanol investments, which barely replace a drop of oil. Are there other infrastructure/stimulus projects which should be cut? Highways that shouldn't be repaved? Waste in winterization projects? Mob museums? All ideas welcome. Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on January 5, 2009 at 8:00am — 3 Comments

Las Vegas looks to stimulus for "Mob Museum"

Work out the cost-benefit ratio for this one: a new mob museum in Las Vegas. I just came across the item in Vegas' KXNT radio site: Mayor Oscar Goodman is looking to bring more tourists and more traffic to the downtown area, and he says if federal stimulus money can help fund some big-ticket projects, such as the Mob Museum, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and the proposed new city hall, then they'll take it… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on December 29, 2008 at 10:24pm — No Comments

SAS' Goodnight calls for $20-$36 billion in education tech spending

A few weeks ago, I asked on Twitter for ideas about how Obama and team should spend the billions in stimulus spending. Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS responded. He worked with Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium on School Networking, to write this essay: (also posted on Vox Stimuli) Why Obama can’t ignore education technology For his book… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on December 22, 2008 at 4:30pm — 2 Comments

Will there be a rural tilt in spending?

Steve Berg reports from Minnesota: The mechanics of government are set up to carry out transportation programs of the 1950s and '60s. Federal money passes through state legislatures with formulas and restrictions that favor rural road projects over transit projects in metro areas. Even when transit lines are built, no incentives are offered for clustering homes and jobs in cl… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on December 16, 2008 at 4:57pm — 1 Comment

A list of pork

Can anyone add to this list? Here's a list of (alleged) pork projects in the bailout bill from Brett Owens: * Sec. 211. Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters. * Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. * Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa. * Sec. 325. Extension and modification of duty suspensi… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on December 16, 2008 at 7:07am — No Comments

How many "Bridges to Nowhere" in stimulus plans?

Now that the Obama government is planning to spend hundreds of billions on infrastructure, and the emphasis is on "shovel in the ground" plans that can create jobs immediately, how many Bridges to Nowhere are we going to see? How about the original Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska? Is that still alive? Are there any pork watchdogs keeping an eye on this? Anyone know of projects in your areas that suffered well-deserved cancellations that we may be seeing again? Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on December 15, 2008 at 6:43am — No Comments

Expert says defending U.S. cyberspace urgent. Cost: $30-$50 billion

Word from one expert about patching our woeful cyber-infrastructure: It will cost from $30-$50 billion, take five years and employ tens of thousands of engineers and scientists. One important benefit: It could save the U.S. economy from destruction. O. Sami Saydjari, the CEO of Cyber Defense Agency and a former official at DARPA (the Defense Dept's research arm) says that the U.S. is vulnerable to cyber attacks that could disrupt our electrical grid, banking system, pipelines of oil and gas, an… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on December 4, 2008 at 11:30am — 1 Comment

Bike paths: save energy and battle obesity

I'm surfing the AmericaBikes site looking for details about bike infrastructure upgrades. How much does it cost to add safe bike lanes in a city? There are great arguments for making investments in biking: * Almost half of young people are not vigorously active on a regular basis; one in eight is overweight or obese. * More than 10… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on December 2, 2008 at 3:31pm — 4 Comments

A macho stimulus plan?

Randy Albelda argues in the Boston Globe that Obama's stated goals skew too much toward traditional male jobs in highways and construction--and should focus more on women. He She writes: Caring for those who cannot care for themselves, healthcare, and primary education are the very foundation of a civil society. Investing in these outcomes are as vital to our long-term… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on December 1, 2008 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Tim O'Reilly's ideas for energy

Tim O'Reilly left a long and thoughtful comment on the blogspotting.net post about this project. Of course I wish that the blogspotting commenters would come here and participate. But for now, I'll import their words. O'Reilly: Tim O'Reilly November 28, 2008 01:22 PM I'm with Mary Hodder: investments in GreenTech should be priority #1. The high price of oil will be back. We should be building towards energy independence. But more than that, the worst possibilities that climate scientists… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on November 30, 2008 at 11:25am — 7 Comments

Raise taxes on energy (slowly)

We need higher fuel prices to attract investment into new energy technologies. The way to do this, I believe, is to put a rising floor under the price of oil (or fossil-generated BTUs, in a broader scheme). This floor could start where oil is right now, which is fairly low, say $60 per barrel. Then every year the tax goes up by, say, $7. A year from now, if oil is below $67 per barrel, taxes lift it to that level. The following year, $74. There's a good chance that oil will be higher than that,… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on November 27, 2008 at 10:30am — 3 Comments

We need help designing this economic stimulus site

Here's the idea: The U.S. government is going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to stimulate the economy and create jobs. How would all that money be best spent? Traditionally, big government spending is a chance for politicians to vie for pork--from new state parks and museums to highways and bridges, sometimes bridges to nowhere. But how about if we all contribute our ideas, coming up with very best investment projects? Not everyone will agree. We can discuss, bringing up ideas across i… Continue

Added by Stephen Baker on November 25, 2008 at 4:30pm — 1 Comment

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