Earlier this morning, I was reading through a recent short analysis (*) of the state of the building materials industry while having my morning tea; the following paragraph jumped out:

“Investors appeared to be disappointed that of the $787 billion spending bill passed by Congress, a meager $27 billion will go directly to fund construction projects. Too, much of those outlays will likely be pushed out a year or more from now. In the near term, nothing will likely be done beyond filling some potholes. In fact, the stimulus package seems more geared to hiring, or retaining, civil servants rather than construction workers.”

Well, so much for “shovel-ready” – the “stimulus” is just “self-stimulus”….

(*) – Sorry, no link; as far as I know this is available only on paper, and if there is an electronic version somewhere it’s certainly behind a subscribers-only curtain.