From Reuters:
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is weighing an "infrastructure bank" to make investments in the nation's infrastructure, Trump adviser Steven Mnuchin told reporters on Wednesday. Mnuchin, a Wall Street veteran under consideration for Trump's Treasury secretary, said the team was focused on "taxes... regulatory changes, looking at the creation of an infrastructure bank to fund infrastructure investments." "I'd say the economic priorities are clearly taxes, regulatory, trade, infrastructure," he added.
Emotions have run high over the last week, with one of the greatest upset Presidential elections in US history. While many were surprised (and some perhaps more shocked) by a Trump victory, one bipartisan message has carried loud and clear: infrastructure is, and will be, a key issue for the next four years.
It's worth noting that the President-elect's victory speech itself made sure to address and reinforce campaign promises on the subject.
"We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it." Trump said following election results on Tuesday night.
Just eight days later, talk of a potential "infrastructure bank" has begun to circulate. Investors are already taking a close look at how this might affect commodities, and which ones are a good idea to buy now. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang came forward this Monday to share optimistic, supportive sentiments from the Chinese government -- in particular when it came to revamping US infrastructure.
"China takes a positive attitude to all areas that will benefit the two countries and peoples, including infrastructure," he said.
The plan itself seems to favor private industry partnerships in the form of tax credits and potentially relaxed regulatory requirements. While this certainly sounds like good news for the trend of public-private collaboration on transit infrastructure, it's important to note that the plan has not been fully fleshed out yet. And, as Heidi Crebo-Rediker, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and CEO of International Capital Strategies, pointed out: while private investment is a good move, so far this plan only includes private investment. Much remains to be seen in time, as always is the case with government transitions.
