High Speed Rail Affirmative


***Knowledge Economy ADV***



Download 0.58 Mb.
Page5/25
Date28.05.2018
Size0.58 Mb.
#50596
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   ...   25

***Knowledge Economy ADV***

Uniqueness-More Stimulus K2 Growth

Economic recovery’s happening now, but it could fail at any time – more stimulus is needed


Michael S. Derby and John Letzing, March 2nd, 2012, writers, Wall Street Journal, “Fed’s Williams: More Stimulus Needed if Recovery Falters,” http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/03/02/feds-williams-more-stimulus-needed-if-recovery-falters/

NEW YORK -- While the economy's prospects have brightened, it remains very possible the [we] Federal Reserve may have to provide fresh stimulus to the economy by way of more balance sheet expansion, a key central bank official said Thursday. "We may need to do more if the recovery falters or if inflation stays well below 2%," Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said. "If the economy does need more stimulus, restarting our program of purchasing mortgage-backed securities would probably be the best course of action," he said, although he added, "the policy actions the Fed takes will depend on how economic conditions develop." Williams's comments came from the text of a speech he was to give in Honolulu, Hawaii, before a gathering of financial analysts. The official is a voting member of the interest-rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year. He spoke in the wake of two days of testimony before congress by Fed chief Ben Bernanke. In his comments to legislators, the central bank leader acknowledged the recovery and said he expected its pace to be modest. He kept open his options when it came to the Fed taking steps beyond its current programs. The recent turn of improved economic data has caused many in markets to mark down the odds the Fed will provide stimulus by buying bonds, to grow a balance sheet that already stands at $2.9 trillion. With borrowing rates already at rock-bottom levels, there have been real questions about what the Fed could achieve by following such a strategy. But even so, it remains the most likely way forward if the Fed chooses to follow it. In his speech, Williams offered his full support to current Fed actions. "The economy currently needs an extraordinarily supportive policy," he said, even as he noted "we'll reverse course when the time comes to remove this support." Williams was upbeat about recent economic news. "The economy is growing, and the recent economic news has been increasingly positive," he said. He expects U.S. gross domestic product to rise by 2 1/4% this year and by 2 3/4% next year. The official said he was "especially encouraged" by job market developments, although he said what is now a 8.3% unemployment rate will likely stay above 8% into 2013, and hold above 7% "for several years to come." Williams said inflation is "relatively contained," and observed "with the economy still underperforming and wage growth modest, inflation should remain subdued" at a 1 3/4% rise this year and 1 1/2% increase next year. The policymaker said housing is still "depressed" but added the sector "appears to have stabilized and is showing some signs of life." What worries Williams most about the outlook is Europe's debt crisis. He noted progress has been made in stopping a broader crisis, although issues there are far from solved.

HSR K2 Knowledge Economy

Traditional stimulus strategies are only short term in their economic benefits. HSR is key to transition to a knowledge economy which fosters long-term growth and competitiveness─


Tierney ‘12. Sean Tierney, Prof. of Geography @ University of North Texas. Ph.D in Geography from University of Denver. “High-speed rail, the knowledge economy and the next growth wave.” Journal of Transport Geography Volume 22, May 2012, Pages 285–287.

For all the controversy surrounding the 2009 stimulus bill, one of its noteworthy flaws was its focus on ‘shovel ready’ projects. Shovel ready projects are relics of the 20th century economy designed to prop up or expand the existing built environment. Acknowledging that crisis management is inherently reactionary, the stimulus failed to anticipate the next economic landscape. What we need now, what HSR offers, is infrastructure that primes the knowledge economy, designed to enhance idea-exchange in the face of rising populations and global competition. Globalization is already reshuffling our national urban hierarchy. Some cities and regions are grappling with decaying industries, plummeting tax receipts and laborers with inadequate skills. Meanwhile, other places with deep and diversified economic roots are repositioning themselves for the next round of consolidation and growth. For better or worse, ideas have replaced tangible goods as our primary export and there is a growing divide between those places with long traditions of economic adaptation and those with mono-industry concentrations and declining productivity. HSR is not appropriate for regions in decline, places like the industrial mid-west or the sand-states (Florida, Arizona, and Nevada), but HSR is well suited to strengthen the competitive advantages of those places that are winning. For some, economic development is a euphemism for industrial policy. Undoubtedly, the government will have an important role to play, for financing, technological standardization, eminent domain and others. Many oppose any form of industrial policy, but not doing so cedes considerable ground to those countries with whom we are trying to compete. Compare the $8 billion that President Obama set aside in the stimulus bill as a down payment for HSR, with the estimated $500–700 billion that China plans to invest for its 19,000 km HSR network (Economist, 2011), or the $21 billion that Brazil will spend for just one line, a 225 mile spur connecting Rio with Sao Paulo (Magalhaes and Winterstein, 2011). But industrial policy is not about business cycles or stimulus, nor is it about corporate welfare or picking winners; done correctly, industrial policy is about steering public resources to lubricate an innovative economic ecosystem that benefits all fields over long periods of time (Porter, 2008).





Download 0.58 Mb.

Share with your friends:
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   ...   25




The database is protected by copyright ©ininet.org 2024
send message

    Main page