Show #026 Our Crumbling Infrastructure - Show Notes

Show #026 Our Crumbling Infrastructure

1. Introduction

   Hello and welcome to Your Friendly Neighborhood Economist Show #026 "Our Crumbling Infrastructure" on August 12, 2014! I am Tom Masterson, Your Friendly neighborhood Economist and in today's show I will indeed talk about our crumbling infrastructure, what is not being done about it and how it relates to the Federal Budget. Then I will look at the state of global warming, especially the new regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. Finally, I have an interview with Lee Badgett, professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at UMass Amherst and Senior Scholar at the Williams Institute of UCLA. I'll have my usual unpredictable mix of music and exciting sound effects as well, but first, as always, some local economics news. Hang on to your hats, folks, Your Friendly Neighborhood Economist is IN. 

2. Local News

   1. Employment

      • Greene County jobless rate falls to 6.4 percent - The Daily Mail: News: However, the number of people employed in Columbia and Greene Counties was virtually unchanged over the past year. The number of nonfarm jobs in Columbia County went up by about 100 in the last year, while in Greene County it fell by about one hundred. So, yes, the unemployment rate is lower but “that 4.8 percent, Columbia County Planning/Economic Development Commissioner Ken Flood said, was still quite the achievement,” is just wrong.
        Also, the first sentence in this story is just wrong: “Fewer than 5 percent of Columbia County residents were unemployed in May.” The unemployment rate, as we all remember, is calculated as a percentage of the labor force, not residents. The labor force contains people employed and people who are looking for work.

   2. Municipal Finance

      • Library fund receives $121K in grants to help with move - Columbia-Greene Media: News
      • WGXC Newsroom · Catskill sewer district proposal advances
      • Town, village ink sewer, water agreements - The Daily Mail: News
      • Foundation surprises Berkshire with $40K
      • Fire district gets $38K for compressor - Columbia-Greene Media: News

   3. Non-Profits

      • Galvan hands out $190K to 19 local groups - Columbia-Greene Media: News
      • Thrift store celebrates fresh start
      • CLC seeks to get North Bay plan off the ground - Columbia-Greene Media: News

   4. Business

      • Planning board toasts two future distilleries
      • Food boat arrives in city
      • New owners plan biz at Main Street Restaurant site
      • IDA shutters American Valve site - The Daily Mail: News
      • CEDC OKs sale of 33 acres to Ginsberg’s - Columbia-Greene Media: News

   5. Columbia Memorial Hospital - Albany Medical Center

      • Columbia Memorial Hospital and Albany Med announce ‘strategic alliance’ - SamPratt.com
      • WGXC Newsroom · Partnership in the works for CMH, Albany Med
      • CMH, Albany Med take first step toward affiliation - Columbia-Greene Media: News: this reads like a press release, which it probably is, since there’s no byline. One thing to notice, the frequent use of “operational efficiency,” which most likely means layoffs at one or both facilities.
      • CMH pursues pact with Albany Med

   6. Energy

      • Power line talks start next month
      • Transmission lines are the talk of Ghent
      • NYSEG presents scaled-down plan for Ghent, Chatham - Columbia-Greene Media: News
      • Ghent, NYSEG reach pact in planned power line upgrades - Columbia-Greene Media: News

3. New York and National News

   • NY judges uphold fracking bans - The Daily Mail: News
   • NY health insurers want 13% rate hike | Politics on the Hudson
   • Jackpot! Lobbyists, lawmakers hit it big with casino bidders | Politics on the Hudson… surprising exactly nobody. The interests bidding to build the casinos are, after all, the only ones (other than the lobbyists and politicians, that is) who are going to get real benefits from these casinos. The grift is moving along nicely.
   • DiFiore's husband, Cuomo ally named to powerful casino siting board | Politics on the Hudson: Nothing to see here folks.
   • Big settlements boost NY's budget | Politics on the Hudson: Here’s the deal: you’ll get lower taxes, but if we catch you blowing up the economy in ways even we can’t ignore, we’ll slap you on the wrist (don’t worry just fines, no jail time).
   • DiNapoli still skeptical of Cuomo’s projected budget surpluses
   • Report: NY tax breaks don't do much to create jobs | Politics on the Hudson: The question that needs to be asked is not how many jobs did IDAs create or save at what cost, but given the cost per job, is that model the best that we can do, or could we be doing better? I have a feeling the answer to that question is yes we could, but neither the report or the response from the IDAs answer it.
   • Cliffhanger: Tax breaks for NY films still remain a mystery | Politics on the Hudson: If I threaten to shop out of state, can I get a 25% discount on everything, too? “…New York had preliminary applications for 183 film and television productions in 2013. The productions are estimated to spend $2 billion in New York on their work and receive about $477 million in tax credits, he said in February.”

4. Musical Interlude

   
   Sadly, this did not appear in the show. Those of you who are Breaking Bad fans may recognize this little number: Quartetto Cetra: Crapa Pelada

5. Our Crumbling Infrastructure

   • Town Board reviews options for Stuy Falls span
   • Six sinkholes take out city’s Columbia Street - Columbia-Greene Media: News
   • Report: New York's rural roads stand up well, bridges middle of the pack | Politics on the Hudson
   • Obama Presses Congress for Long-Term Transportation Bill
   • Obama Urges Congress to Fund Infrastructure Projects - NYTimes.com
   • This Road Work Made Possible by Underfunding Pensions - NYTimes.com: I guess that’s one way to do it. Yet another disaster brought to you by that old time tax-cut religion.
   • Keeping the PBGC from being the next bailout recipient

6. Musical Interlude

   
   The previous story and the next one make me think of this song for some reason:The Police: When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around

7. Global Warming

   • U.S. Climate Has Already Changed, Study Finds, Citing Heat and Floods - NYTimes.com: For some horrible irony, look at the map and think about where in the country the idea that global warming is a hoax has the strongest hold. I think particularly of Oklahoma, whose Senator Inhofe has called global warming the "greatest hoax." Naturally, temperatures in Oklahoma are below the early 20th century average. Although this is perfectly in line with predictions of the impacts of global warming, some areas warmer, some cooler, some wetter, some drier than before, it would be nice if the harshest effects weren't confined to areas with people more inclined to believe tens of thousands of climate scientists on this issue.
   • Insurers must adapt to climate change | John Nelson | Comment is free | theguardian.com: "A Lloyd's report is calling for the industry to consider new catastrophe modelling after the harsh lessons of Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy." Apparently Lloyd's of London doesn't realize that global warming is a hoax. So much for the miracle of the free market. But seriously, when a very button-down, conservative institution like Lloyd's is saying things like this does that mean we can maybe start doing something about this? Besides raising insurance premiums (which is the obvious sub-text, there)?
   • Conservatives would rather say the military is stupid than accept that climate change is real by David Atkins - Hullabaloo: Clearly the Pentagon is in on the hoax, amirite?
   • Climate skepticism for dummies by digby - Hullabaloo: If you think it'll help, the answer to the most commonly raised pieces of misinformation that totally prove* that global warming is a hoax.
     * in this case "prove" = "do not prove" for those of you with strong sarcasm filters.
   • Scientists Warn of Rising Oceans From Polar Melt - NYTimes.com
   • The world as we know it is ending by David Atkins - Hullabaloo: Long past time to get moving on this.
   • Afternoon Must-Read: John Timmer: Glaciers Draining Antarctic Basin Destabilized, Big Sea Level Rise All But Certain (Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality...): Just repeat to yourself: "It's all a hoax."
   • Polar ice loss: Antarctica melting faster, Greenland more vulnerable. by Phil Plait, Slate.com: "The real facts are and have been coming in for a long time now. Our temperatures are rising, the ocean water is warming, our poles are melting, and sea levels are creeping up. We need to kick the deniers to the curb, and start working on real solutions."
   • Gaius Publius: "Erring on the Side of Least Drama" - Why Climate Scientists are Inherently Conservative | naked capitalism: They are. That's why you keep hearing stories that global warming's impacts are rolling out faster than climate scientists have predicted. But, this conservatism has not made the political argument any easier to win. When you're arguing with an opponent that does not mind lying, sugar-coating the truth is less than effective.
   • Environmental Economics: Less than 25% of the U.S. are skeptical about anthropogenic climate change: Interesting, and encouraging, if true. I keep hearing that 53% of US-ers now doubt climate change is caused by our burning things.
   • J.D. Alt: Climate Mitigation and Confusion About "Cost": Who Benefits? | naked capitalism: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that mitigating climate change (by investing in low-carbon intensity energy production and infrastructure) will "cost" about $510 billion. That's really not much for the world. And that "cost"? Means that half a trillion dollars is spent on clean energy, etc., rather than on something else. What else? Glad you asked:

     Into whose pockets is the .06% of annual GDP for climate mitigation going to be directed? If you look at the IPCC's chart of "Changes in Annual Investment Flows" it becomes clear what the strident complaining and foot-dragging is really all about - and understandable with regard to where it's coming from (see below): Those projected negative investment flows happen to be in the cash-generating business empire owned by Charles and David Koch. That simple fact pretty much sums up the whole American political scene about global warming.

     Click the link to check out the whole piece (it's pretty short) and the graph at the end. Of course it's not JUST the Kochs. It's Exxon/Mobil, BP, Shell, Duke Energy and all the rest.
   • Clean Power Plan Proposed Rule | Carbon Pollution Standards | US EPA: Here is the EPA's proposal, for the hardy readers among you.
   • Fundamental Facts of the EPA's Climate Protection Proposal | Center for American Progress: Setting the record straight on some things you will hear said about the EPA's new proposal.
   • Taking Page From Health Care Act, Obama Climate Plan Relies on States - NYTimes.com: UN-like the Affordable Care Act, this is not legislation written by the affected industries. Which is why you here their direct and indirect voices in the whining from the Chamber of Commerce and the floor of the US House and Senate. The biggest impact this will have, if done correctly, is on coal company profits. And that's why there is opposition. And why the voices of our elected representatives say that this will kill jobs. Almost any time one of our elected representatives says something will kill jobs, it is because they want to drum up popular support for their position, which will inevitable vacuum cash from the pockets of the people they are trying to make afraid for their jobs.

8. Musical Interlude

   Ella Fitzgerald: Too Darn Hot. See what I did there?

9. Interview with Lee Badgett

   Lee Badgett is a professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at UMass Amherst and Senior Scholar at the Williams Institute of UCLA.

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Link to the show: Your Friendly Neighborhood Economist Show #026 "Our Crumbling Infrastructure"

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Theme Music: Drops of H2O ( The Filtered Water Treatment ) by J.Lang Provided under a Creative Commons Public License.

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