Infrastructure: past, present, and future

Infrastructure has been the bedrock to America’s development, progress, and dreams. Roads to highways, dams, bridges, electric grids, railways and then airports and now internet and more. Can we learn from history, assess current needs, understand the economics and have a vision for our future?

Dean Baker is a senior economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. His most recent book was Rigged: How the Rules of Globalization and the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change.  Author or co-author of 20 books, her latest book, Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time, has won a number of accolades.

Laurie A. Schintler is an Associate Professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where she also serves as Director of Data and Technology Research Initiatives in the Center for Regional Analysis. 

Lee Vinsel is an associate professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and a co-founder of The Maintainers, a global, interdisciplinary research network focused on maintenance, repair, infrastructure, and the mundane work that keeps our world going. He is the author of Moving Violations, a history of automobile regulation in the United States, and co-author with Andy Russell of The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work that Matters Most.  

Peter Coy, the moderator, is an economics writer for the New York Times Opinion section. He moved to the Times in July 2021 after nearly 32 years at BusinessWeek and Bloomberg Businessweek.