Michael Spence Is A Conservative Nobel Prize Winning Economist...

...and also a communist. Well, I've been told that people who think governments play a crucial role in maintaining a well-functioning society and that the U.S. should be investing more in infrastructure are communists, but I have to do some follow up on that.

"Indeed, in the United States, lessons from the Katrina experience appear to have strengthened response capacity, as shown by the rapid and effective intervention following Hurricane Sandy. But investments designed to control the extent of damage seem to be persistently neglected.

Redressing this imbalance requires a focus on key infrastructure. Of course, one cannot at reasonable cost prevent all possible damage from calamities, which strike randomly and in locations that cannot always be predicted. But certain kinds of damage have large multiplier effects.

This includes damage to critical systems like the electricity grid and the information, communication, and transport networks that constitute the platform on which modern economies run. Relatively modest investments in the resilience, redundancy, and integrity of these systems pay high dividends, albeit at random intervals. Redundancy is the key."

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/protecting-our-economies--key-infrastructure-by-michael-spence#TsL7LWOiRlLycpd8.99