Shock Doctrine, American-Style: Hurricane Sandy Devastation Used to Push for Sale of Public Infrastructure to Investors

As a result of fully warranted bad press for some privatization deals, such as the lease of Chicago’s parking meters, there has been a bit (stress only a bit) more critical scrutiny of the de facto sale of public assets to consortia of private investors. Nevertheless, major banks have been using the financial distress of states and municipalities to push these deals as a solution to budget woes, when it’s a short-term expedient that leaves the public worse off. As we wrote earlier:

The problem, of course, is that these deals put important public resources paid for by taxes (or even worse, financed by bonds and thus potentially not even yet fully paid for) in the hands of private investors. They then earn their returns by charging user fees of various sorts. The public must rely on the new owners for reinvestment and maintenance, and depending on how the deal is negotiated, may have ceded control as far as fee increases are concerned. This is tantamount to selling the family china only to have to rent it back in order to eat dinner.

Now defenders will argue that there is nothing wrong with this in practice, as long as the price is fair, no one is harmed. That’s spurious. This is worse than an intergenerational transfer. Those future fees not only must recoup maintenance costs (which any owner would presumably pay) and the time value of money, but also the investor’s target return in excess of that. In addition, the large transaction costs of these deals are ultimately borne by the seller.

And the list of shortcomings thus far are merely those that result if you have two sides that are equally sophisticated. That is hardly the case with municipalities versus bankers and investors. As the old saying goes, “If you sit down for a game of poker and you don’t know who the sucker at the table is, it’s you.”

One of the themes of Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine was that disasters, such as the explosion of government budget deficits as a result of the financial crisis, help powerful parties push through programs that would have been hard to sell in ordinary circumstances. An even more cynical version is starting. The wreckage from Hurricane Sandy hasn’t even been cleared, yet financial entrepreneurs are looking to profit from it. From Philly.com:

Rebuilding the shattered Shore and the swamped New York tunnels, along with badly needed updates to the Northeast’s exhausted roads and rails, will be an opportunity to implement streamlined construction laws backed by Republicans and pro-business Democrats in Congress and the states, says Frank Rapoport, Berwyn-based partner at New York law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge L.L.P., and counselor to contractors who support “public-private partnerships” (P3).

That’s a label for a group of strategies that replace lengthy government-led construction with private contractors and financiers, financed by “sharing” user fees – like road tolls – once the project is built, instead of borrowing money and charging taxpayers….

P3 funding – which Corbett’s predecessor, Democrat Ed Rendell, also supported and has continued to champion in his part-time retirement gig as an investment banker for Greenhill & Co. – is coming along “just in time” to aid in Sandy reconstruction, Rapoport says. Virginia is pushing a high-profile, privately run, toll-funded expansion of I-495 that P3 backers call a model. Pennsylvania “is following Virginia and Texas” in pushing privately run public projects, he added. Cash-strapped Puerto Rico is using P3 projects “for everything from bridges to schools.

The problem is that these deals are typically exploitative financially, given all the mouths at the trough that get fed on these transactions. Let’s return to that Chicago parking meter deal. Mayor Richard Daley ramrodded it through, informing the city council of the complex deal a mere two days before the vote. The city had projected revenues foregone over the 75 year life of the deal on present value basis of between $700 million and $1.1 billion for cashflows over the life of deal in the $4 billion to $5 billion range. Chicago got $1.15 billion for the arrangement. Sounds like a winner, right? Well, funny that. The selling memorandum for Morgan Stanley-led investors on the very same deal said revenues would not be $4 billion or $5 billion, but at least $11.6 billion, or more than double the top amount projected by the city. And since they’ve put through two rate increases totaling over a 40% increase already, looks they they are on the way to making that happen.

And these deals also contain that Elizabeth Warren would call “tricks and traps” that curtail government sovereignity, are contrary to the public interest, and even create safety risks. From Truthout:

Infrastructure privatization contracts are full of “gotcha” terms that require state or local governments to pay the private contractors. For example, now when Chicago does street repairs or closes streets for a festival, it must pay the private parking meter contractor for lost meter fares. Those payments put the contractors in a much better position than the government. It gets payments, even though Chicago did not get fares when it had to close streets…..

Highway privatization contracts also often include terms that forbid building “competing” roads or mass transit. Some even require making an existing “competing” road worse. For example, the contract for SR-91 in Southern California prohibited the state from repairing an adjacent public road, creating conditions that put drivers’ safety at risk. A proposed private highway around the northwest part of Denver required that local governments reduce speeds and install speed humps and barriers and narrow lanes on “competing” roads to force drivers to use the privatized road….

Virginia decided to promote carpooling to cut down on pollution, slow highway deterioration and lessen highway and urban congestion. As a result, Virginia must reimburse the private contractor for lost revenues from carpoolers, even though not all of the people in a car would otherwise have driven individually….

This approach makes about as much sense as using your house as an ATM to pay expenses, and in a worst-case scenario, is more like burning your furniture to heat the house. And even though we know how these movies are going to end, there’s hardly any reporting on these transactions, and thus even less opportunity than usual for the public to demand that its interests be protected. This is classic back-room dealing to the detriment of ordinary citizens, and there’s a good reason why. Making these deals make sense for the public would pretty much stop this gravy train, so it is essentially that they be kept in the dark. Disgracefully, media cheerleaders like Philly.com are only to willing to cooperate.

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54 comments

  1. JimmyZ

    have any gov’t officials been held accountable for “gotcha” contract terms? The example that I keep in mind is a private prison company that got an occupancy rate guarantee, which could influence sentencing against the better interests of society.
    Another facet of gov’t employee accountability is how public employees are said to be bankrupting governments with high salaries, high cost pensions and other benefits. Privatization is supposed to help with this, but if a contract binds the taxpayer to funding an expensive private operation, how is privatization preferable? both sides of this issue should sell themselves on sustainability.

  2. psychohistorian

    Never lose the opportunity to take advantage of a crisis. That is the SOP going forward….backward for that matter.

    While some of us can see through the smoke screen of propaganda and disinformation, many can’t and have been taught to have faith in the social institutions that are now selling off the social commons to the folks that bought them the office.

    Can we get a Rapture of the morally repugnant?

      1. psychohistorian

        Thanks for the link.

        You would think that these folks would self immolate from the internal cognitive dissonance……but if you have enough faith, you can believe anything told to you from the bottom of a paper bag…..or anywhere.

  3. JGordon

    I am in favor of frauds and criminality that screw over taxpayers. The more people that realize that America is being run by a bunch of criminal psycophaths who will screw the the citizens over at every given oppurtunity, the people people will realize the benefits becoming self-reliant and independent.

    By the way, a lot of people in the north east read some of my posts previously and followed my advice about storing food, and ammo, and solar panels, etc. And they’re doing just fine. Meanwhile their neighbors are suffering and whining about why won’t the government hurry up and come save them. That’s how things work in the real world you know, when reality rears its head.

    1. DF Sayers

      And I bet a lot of people decided to work with their neighbors to ensure their access to resources and shelter, as well. No doubt they’re doing quite well despite not having a cache of weapons.

  4. Middle Seaman

    The Republican party, even in its Nixon/Rockefeller days, was and is the party of business. We used to have Democrats who championed the cause of the everyman. These Democrats are long gone. It’s not a American phenomenon; it’s true in every affluent society. The Democrats now are to the right of the Nixon/Rockefeller line; way right.

    We are political orphans. Even entities such as the Greens or the Naomi Kleins are nothing short of a bitter joke. They may correctly identify the problems, but their solutions are old, i.e. 1950s, narrow minded and impossible to sell.

      1. El Guapo

        But in standing up for himself he would also stand up for others like him. The other plebs. Everyman hates the other plebs. Especially those colored ones and the women. Fuck them. Instead he cheers on the bosses as they crush the Others. The fact that he is crushed along with them is irrelevant.

  5. GSO

    P3 is usually based on arbitrage of some rules. In some public budgets if you build a property you have to expence the full cost first year. If you lease it for its usefull life, you only have to show the first year lease cost, avoiding deficit. If you build a toll road, there is no tax increase, if you finance it with sales tax on gas its a tax hike. It’s different variations over the off balance theme.

    1. C

      Yes. This is in part how Romney was able to “balance the budget” without “raising taxes” by spreading around fees. Rendell did the same thing in his time as governor by closing recurring budget holes with one-time sales of public property (and a 50 year lease is a sale no more no less).

  6. Pat

    Shock Doctrine and October Surprise immediately came to mind when Hurricane Sandy showed up.
    Obama was sinking in the polls and on his way to defeat – then Sandy comes along and knocks the election off the news. Obama’s numbers go up as folks look to maintain the status quo and rally round the leader in the midst of a crisis.
    I’m not saying that Obama caused Sandy (a few people believe that – see links below), but he has certainly has benefited from it. What a coincidence – a catastrophe shows up two weeks before the big election.
    As for private profiteering, I think the privatization will be different than that suggested by Yves. I think government will spend huge amounts to build huge levy systems, not on roads.

    Ok, here’s the conspiracy theory:
    “HAARP Engineering ‘FRANKENSTORM’ Hurricane Sandy – CAUGHT on SATELLITE and RADAR!!!”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4P7Kr17RX8
    It is suggested that there is evidence of ChemTrails and “sonic manipulation” developed by the semi-secret weather-changing government program called HAARP, which caused the storm to intensify and make a sudden left turn over the coast. HAARP has been linked to severe droughts in Russia and flooding in China and Pakistan in the past few years. Whuddya know, our three biggest enemies and rivals.
    All that was needed for Sandy was to send up a few big tanker planes spreading chemicals in the upper atmosphere, and voila – October Surprise.

      1. psychohistorian

        Yeah…LOL

        Anyone with a brain in their head can see this election for the sham it is. Got to get the rubes all worked up for the slaying of the grand bargain of SS and Medicare by the puppet in chief and all those bought congress critters.

        The global inherited rich have all the money, power and control and continue to exercise that power in their best interests which are not the best interests of the 99%.

  7. Max424

    Yves: “… and in a worst-case scenario, is more like burning your furniture to heat the house.”

    Giggle. Things ARE getting worse, apparently. In the good old days, we were “selling the family China only to rent it back in order to eat,” now the approach is to burn down the house in order to save it.

    Desperate “fiscal cliff times” call for public officials to do shit that would put the Average Treasonous Joe away in a loony bin for life.*

    *That’s only if Average Treasonous Joe was able to beat The Noose with an insanity plea, of course. Otherwise, he’s dangling.

  8. Fiver

    Good and timely piece.

    At some point we’re going to have to fully acknowledge and formally analyze the numerical size, depth, extent and means of propagation of the deformed elite “culture” constituted by those who’ve completely abandoned professional and business ethics in favour of predation on public assets.

    Progressives, loosely speaking, have not come to terms with how radically the situation has changed over the last 15-20 years or how poor our strategic situation as political/social beings driven by principle has become.

    There is no US Army to fall back on to fend off evil of this sort, nor any strong alternate vehicle (a solid church, for instance)through which these tens of thousands of well-placed, well-fed bastards can be challenged effectively, especially with the law itself typically leading in the subverting of the public interest.

    We need to think of news ways to exert maximum disapproval in more direct ways. The bad guys might think twice before they went outside their office walls if there was a chance they’d each be informed by at least 1 man of woman with the facts that:

    “You, Mr. Blank, have been identified as Leach of the Day based on your appalling record as chief traffic engineer. Your photo, business and home address, telephone numbers, e-mail address and favorite haunts are being sent out across all channels to over 4 million of your fellow citizens. May you have an interesting day, Mr. Blank.”

    There simply has to be a way to take a collective dump on these people’s parade in a way proportionate to what they’ve unleashed on the world over time that falls short of violence, but scores big on public humiliation and career change.

  9. Mike S.

    history shows that the powers that be can crap on the peasants for a loooooooong time before there’s a revolt.

    multiple lifetimes might pass before it comes to pitchforks and torches.

  10. casino implosion

    We’re also seeing a developing meme about non-union utility crews being turned away in NJ…blasted unions are the only thing standing between consumers and the restoration of power!

    1. d cortex

      Speaking about those Parking Meters in Chicago sold to the bank, besides taking advantage of the municipal gov’t, the fees to Chicagoans seeking to park their vehicles HAVE RISEN SEVERAL TIMES FOR NO APPARENT REASON.

      1. Ms G

        Well of course — how else would the Private Partner ensure Growth?

        (Note. Every day I am surprised that pitchfork brigades are not forming.)

        1. Jonathan

          In protest culture it is commonly understood that those advocating violence are fools or provocateurs. I’ve found myself wondering lately whether that is an understanding borne of strategic awareness, of an understanding of black bloc provocateurs, or of those who would otherwise find themselves on the pointy end of said pitchforks.

  11. David R

    There are probably lessons, and some hope, in the Argentine experience on privatization — in the 90s they privatized basically everything. In the last 10 years they’ve revoked the concessions on oil/gas (YPF), water, the airline, the post office, some trains (and I’m sure I’m missing some). And they un-privatized social security.

    In almost all of these cases, there was enough evidence of the predictable bad outcomes (shoddy maintenance, price gouging, corruption) to get the public to support the re-nationalization.

    I’m not sure the politics would ever work the same way in the US, but at least it’s possible somewhere.

  12. Tom

    If people would only look at the basics – they would see how they are getting screwed. People are given a carrot to follow by the sales pitch – privatize this or that public good or service and your taxes will go down (remember about how bad the government is at doing stuff – they are inefficient- bla bla)- so folks say, gee that sounds great- lower taxes – yet they fail to see that they are now paying directly more out of their pocket for those services and goods. On top of that, the private firm now wants competition removed so they can point out how bad government is in providing infrastructure etc. (I would hope some smart lawyer would bring suit against these provisions in the contract for, say: endangering the public safety…maybe the police can arrest someone, creating a monopoly, or showing that some provisions are not within legal bounds of contract law). Yes, being a public stooge (citizen), I see how cost saving it would be to have my already paid for infrastructure (my taxes paid for it)be refinanced into private hands and, paying to that private company – (maintenance+mark up+profit+debt service+overhead)+ (operations+mark up+profit+debt service+overhead)+ (Unlimited fake upgrades+mark up+profit+debt service+overhead)+ (usurious fees+mark up+profit+debt service+overhead) –
    why, that ought to lower my taxes and make the world right even though I am paying directly out the nose for these wonderful services that are so much better (snark) than what the government provides – why yes, thank you – I will bend over if that is what you desire.
    As Simon Patten, the first economics professor at the nation’s first business school (the Wharton School) explained, public infrastructure investment is a “fourth factor of production.” It takes its return not in the form of profits, but in the degree to which it lowers the economy’s cost of doing business and living. Public investment does not need to generate profits or pay high salaries, bonuses and stock options, or operate via offshore banking centers.

    1. FrankZappasGuitar

      Dear i need a loan now,

      Can you be the lyricist in my band? It’s mostly jug music, with my lil brother Pook on mandolin. He howls good but don’t got no words like yours. I think we could co-write a hit, “Offered Clear Vibrant Concept Gold Card” would chart in Dubai or Hong Kong, reckon? Get that guppy class when it’s young son, YEAH!

  13. FrankZappasGuitar

    Revolution — Why is it always about pitchforks, euphemistic or not? C’mon people, any upending of the Phenomenal American Lifestyle will be a process of infiltration combined with the horrible foamy bile of necessity. The character profiles are written — sorry, you’re a peasant [infiltrator class], not a shiny knight :-(, the dungeon master is in his seat, the 10 sided die is cast. Like George Bush the Elder once declared: The American lifestyle is not up for negotiation. The people are happy in narcosis, the pols are happy inflating their notches and careers — nothing will/can change till it does.

    [if you live on a farm and are reasonably self sustained, or have a viable plan to reshape democracy in an environment of aggressive global capitalism, please POST NOW so I can get to work on that after I finish my toast and morning composing session]

  14. Steve U

    I read this and was reminded of this blog I read last week:

    http://www.todaysthedayhbg.com/about-the-parking-system-lease-harrisburg-receiver-meets-with-the-harrisburg-parking-authority/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=about-the-parking-system-lease-harrisburg-receiver-meets-with-the-harrisburg-parking-authority

    I’m the Steve with the first comment. My comment isn’t to the level of Yves’ writing but I made the comment because I read this blog. I just saw the reply today when I went to find the link so I don’t know what to say about that. It does seem to imply the garages would be subject to property tax which is interesting.

    Anyway, I thought this was a good example of NakedCapitalism’s influence on mere mortals in action. Thank you!

  15. Wilson

    I think we have to distinguish between privatising public goods/services from fostering monopoly. Using the meter example, if the government contract out meters by streets/districts in a short term contract with an auction to foster competition, it would have been a very different story. Privatization without private-sector competition is just embezzlement of public asset with a legal facade.

      1. LeonovaBalletRusse

        liberal, yes, that’s the first issue. The second is that “complaints to City Hall” are without effect, pols “can’t be blamed” and the “private” Agent is beyond reach. Think Private Prison System within this FRAME of “Liability Transfer” — made popular with Transfer of Liability Schemes used in the “Toxic Waste Industry.”

        1. LeonovaBalletRusse

          What Orwell, Huxley, and Kafka knew Then, we know Now. Works for “THEM,”not for us. Just for fun, see “They Live!” on YouTube.

  16. Tom

    The overwhelming influence of great private monopolies in both legislatures and courts cannot continue if we are to maintain popular government. If we fail to regulate grants of public powers properly, invasion of private rights by those powers will be our proper and certain reward.

    1. psychohistorian

      So please tell me that we don’t have this invasion already…….not that I will believe you, but try.

  17. mcgee

    Government as a social contract is being replaced with a corporate control contract. When most services are privatized and contracts are binding and sacrosanct then what will be the purpose of elected officials? How does the citizenry control anything when there is nothing left for them to control through voting?

    Craptastic corporatocracy.

    1. LeonovaBalletRusse

      mcgee says: Government as a social contract is being replaced with a corporate control contract.”

      Quite right. Our Constitutional Law has been replaced by what Bertrand Russell called “the Law Merchant” — in league with Global “Maritime Law”.

      Search and weep. Then RISE UP. It is We the People’s Constitutional DUTY to overthrow Tyranny — foreseen by the Founders — through periodic Revolutions.

  18. steve from virginia

    Hmmm …

    The big shots and well-connected are stealing whatever isn’t bolted down and this is a big surprise. Why? If there was organic ‘economic growth’ anywhere within the world’s interlocking economies there would be no need for the ‘beggar thy neighbor’ dynamic that is visible at every level, in and out of government.

    We are a frightened population, “… a fat land quivering in paunchy fright” as E.B. White put it in November of 1929. For the first time since the Depression Americans are waking up to face the consequences of actions aggregated over the decades and centuries: YES! There are consequences to covering the country with asphalt and cheap boxes and letting slip hundreds of millions of automobiles to run like rats everywhere … of letting the auto- and related industry rats … rule the world.

    I hate to break it to ya, the problem isn’t with finance per se but with yr wonderful, so-called ‘productive’ economy which isn’t! Industrialization has no net output, it never had any … it’s all borrowed. This is why money-lenders have gained ascendance. You must play the game by their rules at all times … or it’s no cars for you!

    The only way to escape from the death grip of industrialists, ‘entrepreneurs'(thieves), ‘innovators’ and tycoons is to not buy into their sales pitches. Holding onto the car with one hand while begging for better terms is nonsense. Why did Occupy fail? Because it represents a demand for cheaper gasoline, cheaper tract houses, more free parking, lower list prices at the dealerships. This is insanity. What the manufacturers, generals, plutocrats, bankers, casino gamblers fear more than anything else is zero sales figures at all of the dealerships, of the entire waste-based system unraveling.

    Do ya wanna beat the system?

    Get rid of your car, drive it to the junkyard, watch as it is ground up into little metal and plastic bits, walk away and never look back. If you can adapt to living without a car you can live without the rest of Big Business’ outrages. It’s not hard Boomer-fools. Your grandparents did it.

    What of this ‘parking concession in Chicago? What is that all about? Like everything in America it is about the cars, the wonderful, precious cars that are elevated above all other things, above human concerns: above the proper use of the land, above custom and tradition, above anything meaningful and sensible in the public life of Americans. To ‘stand in the way of progress’ is always to stand in the way of the enlarging hegemony of the automobile industry and its dependencies. Of a handful of tycoons who should be taken away and drawn and quartered for their crimes. What remains of civilization in America? What is ‘civil’ anyway? Our toys have made us stupid: Fox News = Toyota.

    “Not repairing a competing road …” Good grief! The US threw away the world’s finest rail passenger system in the 1960s to satisfy a handful of car manufacturers and energy tycoons.

    Now … the paunchies are trapped by their dependencies … and are whining about being ‘ripped off’. Get ready, fools! This is just the beginning. You have no idea what is emerging from the wild, dark places of this world. Peak oil and climate change are getting ready in the process of smashing the mindless American Way of industrialized waste like the hammer of Thor.

    The process is a consequence. Exhaustion of capital resources is irreversible. Either credit collapses completely or the fuel supply is strangled and the waste-infrastructure stranded … both of these things by costs. Meanwhile, the managers are too invested to make the necessary changes … to jettison the status quo … and start over.

    Starting over must be done there is no other choice. To continue down the current path means credit collapse and fuel supply strangulation anyway. The process is well underway in Europe … it’s coming to a suburb near you.

  19. Lee Adler

    Just FYI, Ed Rendell was the leader of the consortium that just bought http://Philly.com . He’s a media plutocrat now. So it’s no surprise that Philly.com is backing this crap. Sad to say, the Dems are just as captured as the Repubs. We live under corporate skimmer rulers.

    1. prostratedragon

      Thank you for this underreported bit of news.

      I first really noticed Rendell during the Barnes Foundation fight. Maybe someone some day could weigh in on the strictly legal aspects of that fight. What I didn’t like about it, as a nonlawyer, was that it seemed to be all about establishing the precedent of breaking certain kinds of trust that had been thought to be binding. I.e., to create a tool whose important uses for the forgers will come later.

  20. Gil Gamesh

    It’s past time for the American people to capitulate, and sell or better, give, all public goods to our JCs (Job Creators, bless them). They will get them all sooner or later anyway, so might as well relieve some anxiety. While the JC goal of restoring slavery may be a bit of a stretch, virtally every American would be happy to be a serf on the JC Mega Plantation, giving up all of our surplus labor value for free. As long as we get the latest Apple widget.

    Will the Chinese save us? That seems to be the gameplan, OWS to the contrary notwithstanding. Not too bright, either: rich Chinese hate Labor as much, or more, that our JCs.

    Have a great weekend, y’all.

  21. The Dork of Cork.

    You eventually get islands of high pay in a sea of slave labour – these then appear uncompetitive

    SNCF & RFF is about to get the British rail treatment.

    http://www.letelegramme.com/ig/generales/france-monde/france/reforme-du-rail-les-grandes-lignes-devoilees-ce-mardi-29-10-2012-1888446.php

    http://www.lejdd.fr/Economie/Entreprises/Actualite/La-reforme-ferroviaire-sur-les-rails-572385

    This lack of wage demand will give the banks a further excuse to raise leverage causing more misallocation of resourses in the future.

  22. The Dork of Cork.

    The British rail model only appears to be a winner(double the passengers of the mid 1990s) because the now lower wages and conditions of the rail workers can compete with the lower wages of the Ryanairs & private bus companies of this world.

    Eventually everybody works for these companies , then you get a collapse of credit as the workers cannot service the debt , a collapse of transport demand etc etc.

    You find the investments made during the credit boom were of the wrong type as there was a false non wage demand signal.

    This normally takes a few decades -for example the Dublin London air route was the busiest in Europe until it was not.

  23. redleg

    Over a decade ago a large municipal employer of mine was facing a large budget shortfall. They entered into discussions to privatize their water system for a cash infusion into their general fund (the water fund was segregated from the general fund, and the water utility was a semi-autonomous unit). The appeal was access to cash that they couldn’t have.

    The City ended up turning down the offer when faced with soft evidence (from Atlanta, et al.) that the O&M funds were being used as profit instead of for actual O&M. They found creative and legal ways of keeping the utility public and segregated while capturing some of the water fund anyway.

  24. OIFVet

    Yeah, I wish the meter rates in Chicago have gone up only 40%. They are up 700% (from quarter/hour to $1.75/hour outside downtown), with another increase scheduled for January 1st. Really though, I don’t object to the rate increases per se. The old rates were grossly underpriced. What I object to is the commons being used for private profit instead of revenues going toward public investment. And I object to the fact that over the life of the deal the city will give back more money than it took in. The assets were sold for 1.16 billion, that’s true.
    What Yves does not mention are the insidious clauses in the contract which force the city of Chicago to reimburse the CPM for the free parking for the handicapped, and for lost revenue every time a street is shut down for resurfacing, utility work, neighborhood festivals, art fairs, etc. Three years in, the city has been billed in excess of $75 million, I leave it to the readers to do the math what that would translate to over the 75 years of the deal. Corrupt is a mild word for this deal, yet it may turn out to be a bargain compared to what Rahm Emanuel is preparing to unleash on Chicago with his P3 cronies… New York beware, all the P3 experiments being cooked up by the democrat neoliberals in Chicago are coming your way.

    1. Lambert Strether

      It’s the “market state.” The role of the state is exactly and only to allocate rents among rentiers and to enforce compliance with rental collection agreements; see, e.g., ObamaCare. Needless to say, oldthink concepts like “rights” and “services” no longer apply.

  25. Jay Rodriguez

    Hey guys, I just thought that I’d come on over and share some images I have captured of the experience we went through here on Staten Island, NY. My family and I are okay and we’re working on getting things back to normal. Many have lost everything and have nothing left. If anyone have and news on resources please feel free on leaving a comment on any two of the links I am providing. All comments and encouragements are grateful!

    (Day 1) Hurricane Sandy Hits Staten Island, NY.- Major Damages – By Jay Rodriguez – http://goo.gl/9VplQ

    (Day 2) Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island, NY – Day 2 – By Jay Rodriguez – NY & NJ – http://goo.gl/vCEGv

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