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Abstract: 

“We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none.” These comments from President Trump’s acceptance speech pushed the topic of America’s crumbling infrastructure into the spotlight once again. Estimates of the United States’ infrastructure gap are in the trillions of dollars, and Washington may be poised to take a more active role. This discussion provides an in-depth look into the issues surrounding infrastructure investment in America, asking where investment is needed and how competitive U.S. infrastructure is compared to the rest of the world. It also explores new proposals from the federal government and discusses the roles of private capital and the municipal bond market. Bryan Laing is vice president of Fiera Capital. Michael Bennon is managing director at the Stanford Global Projects Center. Scott Zuchorski is a senior director at Fitch Ratings. Tyler Duvall is a partner at McKinsey & Company. This discussion is based on the authors’ presentations in the panel titled Infrastructure in the United States—Becoming “Second to None” at the 34th Annual Conference of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts held in Washington, DC, May 16–19, 2017.

Keywords: U.S. Infrastructure, infrastructure gap, infrastructure investment, municipal bond market, public-private financing

Affiliations:  1: Fiera Capital; 2: Stanford Global Projects Center; 3: Fitch Ratings; 4: McKinsey & Company.