Barry Ritholtz, Columnist

The Odds of Fixing U.S. Infrastructure Just Got Better

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce now is calling for higher gas taxes to repair America's crumbling roads.

January 31, 2018 at 5:13 PM UTC

Barry Ritholtz is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

It doesn't have to be this way.
Photographer: Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Getty Images

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After all the complaints I have made about the need for a big improvement in American infrastructure, I am genuinely excited by the prospect that something might happen this time.

My optimism isn’t the result of President Donald Trump’s claim in last night’s State of the Union address that he’s interested in an infrastructure program; history teaches us that the speech offers little guidance in whether future projects come to fruition.1517417500822 Rather, my optimism springs from a schism between two of the major players on the political right, who disagree about things like taxes, spending and the role of government.