Article source: ConstructConnect

• Some in the construction industry have been pinning their hopes for revival on an infrastructure spending package. Let’s look at the financing situation. The U.S. fiscal deficit this year is approaching $4 trillion, with three-quarters of that amount being rescue money. The priority order of relief expenditures has been: income supplements; unemployment insurance top-ups; help for large- and medium-sized corporations; specific industrial sector support (e.g., airlines); aid for urban transit systems and for hospitals; and a first round of small business loans, followed by a larger second round.

• Not even covered yet are state and local government shortfalls caused by tax revenue swan dives. So, will another trillion dollars be set aside for infrastructure spending? There’s always the possibility that a political-gain motivation, seen by one party or the other, may prevail. But with a new debt mountain looming, it seems unlikely to me.

Read the rest of Notes from the Trenches (27)

Article source: ConstructConnect

• Canadians have entered the pandemic unprepared. In total, they have a record high level of household debt to disposable income, a ratio exceeding 170%. The reason for the debt buildup has been an exceptionally strong residential real estate market.

• For years, speculation concerning a runaway housing bubble in Canada has been noted but, for the most part, brushed aside … although it is worth mentioning that there have been some government-imposed steps to cool overheating home prices. Nevertheless, the roosters have finally come home to cock-a-doodle-doo, but in an unexpected way.

Read the rest of Notes from the Trenches (26)

Article source: ConstructConnect

• The website ‘flightradar24.com’ (dashboard heading ‘Statistics’) records that the number of commercial flights globally (as a 7-day moving average) on March 12, 2020, was 101,297. From mid-March on, there was a rapid falling off, so that by April 12 (one month later), the figure had descended to just 29,442, a giant-sized drop of -71%. (‘Commercial’ flights are defined as passenger, cargo, charter and some business-jet flights. Excluded are glider, helicopter, ambulance and some military excursions.)

• Latest month-to-month airport departure statistics (number of actual flights) from ‘flightradar24.com’ show the following: Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, -59%; Chicago O’Hare, -66%; Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson, -69%; Los Angeles International Airport, -72%; New York John F. Kennedy, -81%; Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport, -82%; Toronto’s Pearson International, -83%; and N.Y.’s LaGuardia, -92%.

Read the rest of Notes from the Trenches (24)

Article source: ConstructConnect

• There seem to be nearly unlimited ways in which society can separate into diverse factions (e.g., along lines tied to income, race, religion, sexual orientation, culinary taste, etc.). There’s one split, though, where the degree of difference exposed by the coronavirus crisis is being magnified to the ‘nth degree’. There are those who have acquired a degree of proficiency in using new high-tech tools, across a wide spectrum of applications, and those who have not. The age composition of the ‘not’ group is inordinately older. (I’m allowed to say that because I’m in the older demographic; they’re my ‘peeps’.)

• Those who are comfortable with digital technology are staying on top of events, be they bad or good, as they unfold. When called upon by employers, they are managing to perform well in non-traditional ways (e.g. working entirely online), most often from their own homes. The counter position taken by those outside the cyber-space loop is that not everyone should need to be instantly accessible twenty-four hours, every day. And that perhaps there’s more joy in not being up on everything.

Read the rest of Notes from the Trenches (20)