By Alphecca Muttardy, macroeconomist Last Updated: Nov 27, 2018 Q: Why is a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) needed? A: Our nation’s spending on infrastructure has fallen to its lowest level in 70 years: to 2.5% of our nation’s GDP. That’s half the comparable level in Europe, and 1/3 the level […]
American Dialogue: The Founders and Us, by Joseph J. Ellis. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018. 283 pp. Reviewed by Edward Spannaus , November 29, 2018 This is both an ambitious and a provocative book. Joseph Ellis, who taught college-level American history for decades, takes the major debates among the […]
By Alphecca Muttardy, Macroeconomist Last Updated 11/27/18 This Brief makes the case that National Infrastructure Banks (NIBs) have historically proven to be superior to Public-Private Partnerships in building American infrastructure. There have been four major National Infrastructure Banks/Systems in our nation’s history,[1] starting with the First Bank of the United […]
By Nancy Spannaus Nov. 22, 2018—The coincidence of this year’s Thanksgiving holiday with the 55th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has provoked me to write this post. Kennedy’s assassination was a horrific turning point in our nation’s history, the opening shot in a series of assassinations […]
By Nancy Spannaus Nov. 12, 2018—Three days ago, my husband and I attended a local event sponsored by the Edwin Washington Project, a non-profit devoted to documenting the history of education during the era of segregation in Loudoun County, Virginia, where we live. The speeches on the struggle waged to […]
By Andrew Spannaus Nov. 8, 2018–The Italian government of Giuseppe Conte, whose EU-critical policies are driven by the leaders of the two coalition partners, and Deputy Prime Ministers, Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement (M5S) and Matteo Salvini of the League, has decided to openly challenge EU budget […]
By Alphecca Muttardy, Macroeconomist Last updated 10/25/2018 Summary: At present, the State of Virginia spends about 10% of its total public spending (or 1.7% of the state’s GDP) on public infrastructure projects.[1] Of that total, the Virginia state budget pays for highway construction and improvements at four-year universities; local governments […]
By Nancy Spannaus Oct. 19, 2018—Today we patriots of the United States properly celebrate the decisive victory of American forces over the British at Yorktown, a victory which “turned the world upside” with the British surrender on Oct. 19, 1781. Although the war continued for another year and a half, […]
By Nancy Spannaus Oct. 17, 2018—After more than one year of study, a Defense Department task force set up by President Trump released a 139-page report on Oct. 5 entitled “Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States.” Not surprisingly, it […]
Nov. 15, 2018–The slide show delivered by macro-economist Alphecca Muttardy on Nov. 13 in Washington,D.C. is now available here as a PDF. Although many of the slides are self-explanatory, you may find it useful to review them alongside our news report, which is available here. As the weekly disruptions of […]
By Nancy Spannaus Nov. 14, 2018—A group of approximately 25 citizen-leaders gathered in a Washington, D.C. library last night to discuss how to address the question of the nation’s collapsing infrastructure. The lively, almost-unstoppable discussion centered around a slide show presentation on a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) proposal, given by […]
Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures: More Relevant Than Ever
By Nancy Spannaus Dec. 5, 2018—Today’s anniversary of Alexander Hamilton’s most important report, the Report on Manufactures, comes at a particularly ironic time in our country’s history. On the one hand, the last year has seen a relative increase in real manufacturing jobs (allegedly the most since the mid-1990s), and […]