U.S. May Look to Replicate EU's Infrastructure Bank

28 January 2009 - 8:00am

According to sources in Europe, the Obama Administration has sought advice from European Union officials about emulating the EU's infrastructure bank.

"President Barack Obama's administration is looking to establish a $60bn (£43.5bn) infrastructure bank based on the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is bailing out small UK businesses hit by the financial crisis."

"The President's transition team has met at least one City figure close to the EIB to discuss how to set up a bank dedicated to rebuilding America's creaking transportation infrastructure. It is estimated that the backlog of road repairs is close to $5 trillion."

"A spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration said on Friday: 'There are no plans currently in place, as the US Secretary of Transportation was only sworn in yesterday. [But] I can tell you that state infrastructure banks are being considered.'"

Source: The Independent, January 25, 2009
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For the past half century we have been building communities for the wrong reasons. We built them to sell cars. This created all sorts of problems.