David Garrity on Asia Times: Trump plan makes it unlikely Asian firms will help rebuild US infrastru
David M. Garrity, a technology and finance analyst with capital markets experience, notes that Trump’s plan ignores how the federal government and US states have historically funded large public works projects.
He says such infrastructure projects are typically 80 percent federally funded and 20 percent state funded versus a 10 percent federal, 90 percent funding mix under Trump’s plan. All US states, moreover, have higher funding costs than the federal government since they can’t avail themselves of the “risk free” US Treasury rate provided by US government securities. Some states also have balanced budget requirements on the books, limiting how much they can spend on infrastructure projects.
‘All flash, no substance’
In the end, this means Trump’s infrastructure plan will both constrict the number of projects funded due to higher cost of capital, while crowding out other forms of state spending due to the need to make the higher interest payments, according to Garrity, who heads GVA Research in the US.
“The Trump infrastructure program has numerous flaws of which the above are only a few,” Garrity told Asia Times. “It’s a reflection of Trump himself, all flash, no substance.”
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