about criminology. i ll explain. first, here s my take. america s job crisis persists, and there seems to be little we can do about it. but actually there is one area where government can create jobs even if consumers aren t spending and businesses aren t hiring. and in a way that is productive for long-term growth. rebuilding america. the american society of civil engineers estimates that america s crumbling infrastructure needs $2 trillion worth of repairs, upgrades, and expansions. with needs on that scale, president obama s infrastructure proposals are at 120th the size of the problem. we need a big plan and a ground bargain between left and right to get it. the first element of the bargain would be funding. already there are several good proposals for infrastructure banks. relatively small public investments can be leveraged to attract much larger sums of private capital. compared with other countries, the u.s. still has an astonishingly low amount of private sector in
and finally, the bold truth about criminology. i ll explain. first, here s my take. america s job crisis persists, and there seems to be little we can do about it. but actually there is one area where government can create jobs even if consumers aren t spending and businesses aren t hiring. and in a way that is productive for long-term growth. rebuilding america. the american society of civil engineers estimates that america s crumbling infrastructure needs $2 trillion worth of repairs, upgrades, and expansions. with needs on that scale, president obama s infrastructure proposals are at one twentieth the size of the problem. we need a big plan and a ground bargain between left and right to get it. the first element of the bargain would be funding. already there are several good proposals for infrastructure banks. relatively small public investments can be leveraged to attract much larger sums of private capital. compared with other countries, the u.s. still has an astonis
first, here s my take. this was u.n. week, and there was some drama over the issue of the palestinian bid for statehood. but the real action is taking place now as the world s finance ministers and leader meet to talk about money. i think it s fair to say that we are confronting the worst economic moment since the days after the collapse of lehman brothers in 2008. growth has slowed in europe and the united states, and it is slower even in the bubbling, emerging markets. some european countries now have deep problems with their debt burdens that appear unmanageable, and that problem is spreading to major european countries like italy. europe s banks have too little capital and too much bad debt on their books. they are posed for a lehman-like event. and here s the worst part in light of these problems, key governments are doing almost nothing. the real culprits are the leaders of europe. they have been kicking the can down the road for two years. they now have to face the f
now my take. the european crisis you have been reading about in the newspapers is worth watching very carefully. it has now morphed into something much bigger than a european crisis. it could batter the entire global economy, which is pretty fragile anyway. you read a lot about greece. the real problem is italy. you see, greece is a nano state and makes up about 2% of the european union s gross domestic problem. italy, on the other hand, is one of the seven or eight largest economies in the world. its debts are greater than those of spain, portugal, ireland, and greece combined. and it has long been governed in an almost cartoonishly bad manner. italy is too big to fail, but it also might be too big to bail. even germany may not be able to credibly bail it out along with all the other troubled countries. so what can be done? i don t think the leading proposals will work. creating eurobonds or giving brussels broader powers to tax and spend. those things won t happen. govern
pacific. now my take. the european crisis you have been reading about in the newspapers is worth watching carefully. it has now morphed into something much bigger than a european crisis. it could batter the entire global economy which is pretty fragile anyway. you read a lot about greece. the real problem is italy. you see, greece is a nano state and makes up 2% of the european union s gross domestic problem. italy is one of the seven or eight largest economies in the world. its debts are greater than those of spain, portugal, ireland, and greece combined. it has long been governed in an almost cartoonishly bad manner. italy is too big to fail but may be too big to bail. even germany may not be able to bail it out along with all the other troubled countries. so what can be done? i don t think the leading proposals will work. creating ueuro bonds or gives brussels broader powers to tax and spend. those things won t happen. people oppose it in europe, governments oppose it in