Not trying to discredit you my friend but being employed in academia will distort the realities and frustrations of engaging in government contract work. There is little, if any, recession for contractors who have primarily done government work. When government work slows they simply move to the private sector and fill the gaps. They under bid jobs at cost which forces out firms dependent upon private work because they cant compete. Further, most of the contractors being forced out cant bid on government work because they don't meet the criteria set forth just to bid. Try getting a performance bond for a government contract when you've never applied for one before. Its not gonna happen. This rail project may be good but it isnt a "shovel ready" project. It seems very little in this package is geared towards "shovel ready" jobs.
The market is going to be volatile for awhile, especially with the big hedge funds day trading and short-selling like mad instead of investing for the future like most small investors must do. But the market and the national economy are two different things. The market will lag the economy and it will fluctuate more wildly.
Look, I've lived by winning competitive government research contracts for decades. I know a little something about them. Being employed by a university doesn't make me myopic and it certainly doesn't fog my reality and distort what I can see. Do I sound absent-minded and slightly daffy to you? You think I wear tweed and smoke a calabash pipe? Perhaps have a vaguely English accent? Live cloistered in the college like at Hogwarts? Your stereotypes are showing, amigo. :grin:
Interesting thread here... As important as everyone makes these contracts sound and this pork bill that passed yesterday. The government doesn't have to take bids, they can award no bid contracts because the timing of all of this is just too important. I would consider these circumstances more important than possibly any time in past history minus the great depression. That is all....
apples & oranges. Not even in the same realm as private companies dealing with RFB proposals. Hmmm, gotta think about that for a minute...:hihi: And it will be AGES before contracts are awarded. It will take an army of government stooges a year or more writing bid requirements. At least the Mexicans will have plenty of construction work in 4 to 5 years. :rolleye33:
Well, you just don't really know do you? Big federal contracts work just the same all over. Well, lets just wait and see, shall we? I won a four-year bet with Sourdough. I bet you the best steak in town that the project will be well underway in five years.
