Lawrence Summers Encourages Infrastructure Investment That Will Pay For Itself

Alan: Widespread lunacy on "the right side of the aisle" recalls the maxim: "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." 

"Quem deus vult perdere prius dementat." 

Australian friend Al C. is a globe-trotting businessman. Recently, when I asked how American infrastructure compares globally, he laughed out loud. 

Most Republicans strike a seemingly serious pose, claiming austerity and budget cuts as transcendentally great goods. The flip side of such foolishness is that they simultaneously block development of world-class infrastructure while other industrial countries pursue its improvement full throttle.

The "small politics" that characterize our purportedly "democratic process" purges our characteristic bravery and boldness, transforming America into the land of the cautious, the hopeless, the unimaginative. 

Even the self-terrorized. 

"Self-Terrorization Is The National Pastime"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/04/americas-national-pastime-is-self.html

Conservatives have lost all vision and content themselves with winning fatuous battles while risking loss of every important "war."

"Are Republicans Insane?"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/are-republicans-insane.html

"American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/arrested-development-american.html

"The Reign of Morons Is Here," Charles P. Pierce, The Atlantic

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-reign-of-morons-is-here-atlantic.html

"People Who Watch Only Fox News 

Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/watching-only-fox-news-makes-you-less.html

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Invest in infrastructure that pays for itself. "In its flagship publication, the IMF advocates substantially increased public infrastructure investment, and not just in the United States but in much of the world....Stated boldly: Public infrastructure investments can pay for themselves....What is crucial everywhere is the recognition that in a time of economic shortfall and inadequate public investment, there is a free lunch to be had — a way that government can strengthen the economy and its own financial position. The IMF, a bastion of 'tough love' austerity, has come to this important realization. Countries with the wisdom to follow its lead will benefit." Lawrence Summers in The Washington Post.