http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20171102-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
Nov. 1 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping met on Oct. 30 with the advisory board of the prestigious Tsinhua University’s School of Economics and Management. The board includes a number of high-profile Americans—Henry Paulson (Chairman of the Paulson Institute), Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone Group Chairman), Jim Breyer (Breyer Capital founder and CEO), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO), etc.—and Xi used the occasion to deliver a message and set the tone for his Nov. 8-10 meeting with President Donald Trump.
According to an account in Xinhua, Xi stated: “As a beneficiary of and contributor to economic globalization, China’s development is the opportunity for the world. China’s opening up is not a zero-sum game but win-win cooperation.” Xi further stated that “We are optimistic about the prospects for China-U.S. relations.” He elaborated, in Xinhua’s paraphrase of his remarks, that “he is looking forward to receiving U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing early next month. China is willing to work with the U.S. side to look far ahead and aim high, take each other’s interests and concerns into consideration, properly solve differences and jointly promote China-U.S. cooperation so as to realize a mutually beneficial and win-win situation. [China will] promote the establishment of a community of shared future for mankind.”
A Note To Readers
Tomorrow, President Trump begins his eleven day trip to Asia for summit meetings in Japan and South Korea, two days of meetings with President Xi of China, and to participate in the Asian Pacific Economic Community (APEC) conference in Vietnam. At the APEC conference he will have personal meetings with President Putin of Russia and President Duterte from the Philippines, among others. Accompanying the President will be the heads of 40 U.S. industrial corporations, like Caterpillar, GE, the Boeing Company and others. Billions in deals are expected to be signed, especially with China.
We should recall that China, holding more than one trillion dollars of U.S. Treasury Bills, has offered to invest, to start with, at least $100 billion of those bills in building U.S. infrastructure. And since the President, once again this past week, has stated that the so-called Public-Private Partnership funding by Wall Street speculators is unworkable and will not participate, that leaves him the only alternative of federal and local government funding– the only method ever used in the U.S. to actually get real infrastructure built.
Perhaps this trip by the President will signal that the United States, at least de facto, will be joining in the greatest infrastructure building project in human history, China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
China could, if the U.S. would set it up, invest those billions in a “National Infrastructure Bank,” earning, say 3% on their investments, rather than the 0.5% they now receive for the T-bills. Then we are off to the races, funding and building great projects once again. And as Lincoln initiated the Trans-Continental Rail Road, and FDR built the Tennessee Valley Project, the Central Valley Project and much more, and as JFK built water projects all over the West and sent us on our way to the Moon, then President Trump can join this pantheon of great builders of the nation.
Special Report: Phase I of the repair of the Oroville Dam spillway completed on time
Another big event occurred this week. Yesterday was November 1, the deadline for the repair of phase I of the Oroville Dam spillway. Finally, we can happily say, a big project was done on time. This week’s report focuses on Oroville Dam, with lots of videos– some of them quite striking, especially the time lapse ones, and the last one showing the completed project. Also there is one video on the building of the Oroville Dam.
And the rest of this week’s report
More on the Delta tunnels. What will be done is still up in the air.
Demonstrating that tens of billions in just maintenance are required for the state’s water infrastructure is the report on the levees that protect not only Sacramento, but broad areas of state, is a report that, in the wake of the Houston flooding, demonstrates how vulnerable we are. The 1862 flood that put the capital under 20 feet of water for weeks is referenced.
That leads to our feature on the financing of infrastructure, and I’ll not say more on that here.
