A hat tip to my colleague Jon Mace for spotting this rather good BBC news article that considers the role that investment in infrastructure can have in sustaining and promoting economic growth. It is a good example of how government spending (fiscal policy) can affect both aggregate demand and long run aggregate supply. And it raises important questions about how such projects are funded.

There are some important demand and supply-side concepts embedded into the article including:

Infrastructure
economic growth
competitiveness
stimulus
standard of living
network
public sector
private sector
assets
funding
bonds

This article might also be useful when teaching the essentials of cost-benefit analysis.

See also this piece about America’s crumbling economy