Notes from the Trenches (23)

Article source: ConstructConnect

• According to CBRE, there are seven major wholesale data center markets in the U.S. By far the biggest is in northern Virginia, with the community of Ashburn in Loudoun County (near Dulles Airport) at its core. The other six, from east to west, are Tri-state New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Phoenix and Silicon Valley. Prior to the pandemic, they were viewed as being recession-proof. That assertion is likely to be proven true many times over in this current coronavirus crisis.

• The same won’t be said for call centers, though. Data centers are full of computer equipment knows as servers. Call centers are chock full of people in cubicles. Who knew that mingling with co-workers would one day become so dangerous? Call center employees are upset about their working conditions and want to operate from home.

• There’s a case to be made that what the world will need going forward is more James Bond economists. That’s to say, economists who think like spies. The reasoning is as follows …

• Traditional economics, grounded in fiscal and monetary theory, teaches that downturns occur as the result of cyclical factors tied to inflation, interest rates, etc. Some theoreticians, in a small corner of the field of economics, have long studied the impacts that spread far and wide from natural disasters, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts and wildfires. They were already moving from their ‘small corner’ into the rumpus room on account of the proliferation of nasty weather events brought on by climate change. Now, with a pandemic in full swing, they’re about to be invited into the living room, where they may feel most comfortable hanging out with members of the intelligence community. There’s a commonality of wary outlooks concerning negative extraneous events (geopolitical, viral or whatever) to be shared.

• An examination of supply chains is a relative newcomer to academic curriculums. Like disaster impact studies, ‘logistics’ is about to climb several rungs on the significance ladder. The tug of war between globalization and de-globalization will see to that. (By the way, what’s another word for cuddling? … De-distancing.)

Category: ConstructConnect

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2020 at 1:56 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.