The next US presidential election takes place on 5 November 2024 – and the Democrats have already scored one big win. Prior to last year’s mid-term elections, they controlled the presidency and both Houses of Congress. Governments love lifting their spending in pre-election years.
Holding the country’s purse strings meant that the Democrats have been able to boost their presidential candidate’s election chances by splashing out cash provided by US taxpayers (and by Treasury bondholders, the funders of the country’s national debt) on a range of new building projects.
One of the main mechanisms here has been the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), aimed at upgrading roads, bridges and transit systems. This was signed off in November 2021 by president Joe Biden, whose message to the people was: “America is moving again, and your life is going to change for the better.”
Political rhetoric notwithstanding, there is no doubt about the need for improvement. Since the 1960s, when most
