Time:
The Great American Yard Sale. Foreign buyouts of companies, in my direct experience, have always ended up in further buyouts - with no profits realized. The primary mistake is often not completely replacing faulty management and doing an extensive ground-up accounting audit. I do agree with this, however: “Indeed, European infrastructure firms calculate that the U.S. needs a massive infusion of capital to modernize its roads, bridges and power lines, highlighted by a recent spate of blackouts and the tragic collapse of a Minneapolis highway bridge last year.” The overengineered bridges and tunnels built in the late ‘40’s and ‘50’s are succumbing to overuse and age, whereas our new bridges and tunnels are ‘efficient and economical’ - and falling apart before their projected lifespans due to poor quality building materials, criminally shoddy workmanship, and designers who don’t allow for those realities of modern construction. Just the other week, the DOT was ‘refacing’ bridge abutments with concrete, covering over the heavily rusting, exposed rebar under the interstate. “They’re safe”, supposedly. Read about failures of prestressed concrete, you won’t be so sanguine.
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Overengineered to withstand multiple ICBMs from the USSR. Turns out, 50 years, más o menos, knocks ‘em out instead. Nothing outlasts neglect.