Asia turns on the infrastructure tap . . .

CHINA is rolling out a US$630 billion infrastructure budget over three years. Japan has just committed US$61 billion to tourism infrastructure. The Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore and Vietnam are committing to mega-projects. India is to lift infrastructure spending by 23%. In the US, both Presidential candidates are pledging hundreds of billions of dollars to infrastructure. Old-fashioned pump-priming is seen as the new economic panacea . . .