A New Bank to Save Our Infrastructure – The New York Review of Books

A New Bank to Save Our Infrastructure – The New York Review of Books: “An article by Felix Rohatyn ‘49 and Everett Ehrlich in the current edition of The New York Review of Books, ‘presents an impassioned plea for the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank, or N.I.B. Its aim, at a time when the Chinese are investing $200 billion in railways and building 97 new airports, would be to use public and private capital to give coherence to a vast program of public works,’ writes New York Times columnist Roger Cohen.

The essay begins: “These are rare times of ferment in one of the most neglected fields of public policy—the nation’s infrastructure, or what used to be known as public works, including roads, mass transit, bridges, ports and airports, flood control systems, and much else. We have been confronted with spectacular and tragic evidence of the inadequacy of these facilities in the failure of the levees in New Orleans and in the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. More generally, a recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers concludes that America’s infrastructure overall is close to “failing” and deserves a grade of “D.” It estimates that an investment of $1.6 trillion will be needed to bring it up to working order.”