Euro Angst
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I have a funny little habit of keeping currency from particularly fun trips in my wallet. For example, I keep a 100 peso note toward the back so when I open my wallet to pay for something, I'm reminded of my honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta. Likewise, I keep a 5 Euro note from a great trip my wife and I took to Berlin a couple years ago. Lately I'm thinking about taking the 5 Euro note out because I think it might be scaring the other money in my wallet.
Things are looking pretty bleak in the Eurozone right now and the mere specter of a European financial crisis is plenty of jitters and economic uncertainty right here in the U.S. May's jobs report was very disappointing and new construction continues to wallow in a state of arrested development. A forecast from Reed Construction Data predicts that the ongoing Euro drama will keep U.S. construction job growth at a slow limp.
While politicians point fingers and assign blame to each other for the continued slow recovery, I think it's important to take a step back and recognize that it was no single set of policies that led us here. With much of the world economy cracking under enormous debt and even China facing potential recession, it's pretty clear that there are major structural problems at play. It's going to take creative, balanced solutions to pull things forward and longer we spend focused on assigning blame instead of working toward fixing things, the more the recovery will lag.
The construction industry could be poised for a big bounceback the moment any stability returns to the global economy. There are a lot of pent up projects and eager investors that have built up in the slowdown of the last few years. Hopefully agreements can be reached in Europe and here at home to create a path forward and get our industry back to work.