Politicians and project-sponsors often present infrastructure projects as promised growth, mobility, jobs, or cleaner energy. After the ribbon-cutting a harder question remains: who pays when something goes wrong? In infrastructure and project finance, advisors and lenders describe this as a technical question of “risk allocation.” And in politics, it surfaces as corruption scandals, fiscal crises […]
Tag: infrastructure
The Power Outage That’s Breaking a Nation
On 25 September, at dusk, Antananarivo went dark. Mothers lit candles to cook dinner; children did their homework by phone light. By midnight, thousands were in the streets, demanding power — the kind that runs lights and governs nations. Years of neglected infrastructure, mounting debt, and mismanaged fuel supplies had finally caught up with the […]
A High-speed Game of Catchup
In 1963, America stood unrivaled as the world’s leader in all things infrastructure. It was a nation of engineering marvels, with millions flocking to witness the products of publicly-funded infrastructure projects, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam. Six decades later, the year is 2025 and we’ve fallen seriously behind. What’s New? […]
CA’s High-Speed Rail Project and Its Future
California’s High-Speed Rail project seems to be in a state of perpetual limbo. Historically, progress on this project has been very slow, with local politics preventing its route from being efficient. Additionally, budget problems mean it won’t be finished anytime soon. To compound the problems the potential rail line already faces, because of the project’s […]
Southeast Asia is Rebalancing the Scales
At the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, much of anti-communist Southeast Asia aligned itself with the United States, entrenching U.S. hegemony around North Vietnam and its close allies in communist China. These countries regarded ties with the U.S. as a way to maintain and develop their economic and political strength in a […]
CA Isn’t Ready to Close Its Last Nuclear Power Plant— But It Can’t Stay Open
On the first of February, 79 top energy experts signed an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, urging him to halt the decommission of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s very last operational source of nuclear power. The group behind this letter includes dozens of prominent energy executives, professors from Berkeley, MIT, Stanford and more, […]
Revising the Community Reinvestment Act Under Biden: Advocacy, Targeted Reinvestment, and the Reversal of Redlining
Manilatown was supposed to be an asylum for Filipino men immigrating into San Francisco in the ‘20s and ‘30s. It wasn’t formed by resident choice, however, but rather necessitated by neglect and violence — beatings of Asian immigrants, redlining, and broader trends toward gentrification ultimately forced these Filipino immigrants into Manilatown where they managed to […]
American Public Transportation: Failures to Modernize
Ideally, a public transportation system is an economical and environmental alternative to driving cars, as it lightens the burden of congestion in mega-cities like Los Angeles and New York City and reduces carbon emissions. It also balances social and geographic inequality by providing an affordable alternative to those who cannot afford to own and operate […]
SB50’s Failure: Lack of Leadership Amidst Regional Divide
Why Can’t California Build? It is no secret that California has a monumental and expanding housing crisis on its hands. In fact, for Californians experiencing it, it has become glaring and inescapable in daily life. And yet, on Thursday, January 30th, landmark housing bill SB-50 failed to pass in the California State Legislature. This marks […]
California Gas Tax Increase Fuels Opposition
California gas taxes are notoriously high. The average California driver pays around $3.05 per gallon at the pump compared to the national average of $2.26, and the statewide $0.72 tax per gallon is almost entirely responsible for this difference. Many disgruntled Californians are pushing back against the tax by targeting Senate Bill 1 (SB1), or […]
Who Will Rebuild America?
Infrastructure has always been used to build up the United States. Though the Great Depression was a time of loss, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt embraced the opportunities it presented. He took bold strokes to better the United States through public works projects, which strengthened America’s infrastructure and economy. A few decades later, President Eisenhower […]
Barriers to Improving Our Crumbling Infrastructure
Amidst the political issues of gun control, immigration policy, and economic crises consistently dominating national headlines, the topic of fixing America’s broken infrastructure continues to be crowded out by the media’s agenda, ignoring an important problem that should be addressed more persistently. Unlike many other debatable issues, fixing our crumbling infrastructure should not be and […]
Our renminbi. Your problem.
“If an alien landed on earth they would be puzzled by its international financial institutions as China is grossly underrepresented” (BBC). In fact, it’s not just China; the vast majority of Asian countries are severely underrepresented in international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), though Asia is home to the world’s fastest […]
A Tale of Two Rulers
Over one and half billion people live in India and Indonesia, two immense nations whose histories have long been intertwined. Last year, in a monumental exercise of democracy, nearly six hundred and ninety million voters went to the polls to elect new leaders in the two countries. In both nations, two challengers who were born […]
The Basics of Bad Bridges
Within the last few years, Americans have become increasingly aware of the failings of our national infrastructure. According to the 2013 report released by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), infrastructure in the United States has been given a grade of D+, meaning that the nation’s roads and bridges are in poor to fair […]
The AIIB: China’s Economic Evolution
According to the International Monetary Foundation (IMF), the economies of the Asia-Pacific region are growing rapidly, and are expected to account for almost half of global GDP by 2030. However, sustainable, long-term economic growth requires a sound infrastructure network to facilitate the transportation of ideas and goods in the increasingly connected global economy, yet the […]