A Few Thoughts on the Recent Election and the A/E/C Industry

摘要

FMI Quarterly spoke with FMI Corporation's president and CEO Hank Harris about the recent presidential election and its impact on the A/E/C industry. Here are some of his insights on what is ahead. Chisholm: The federal government remains essentially unchanged since the election, and the balance of power remains shared among President Obama, Senate Democrats and House Republicans. What does this mean for the A/E/C industry in general? Harris: I think it means more of the same, which is probably the obvious thing to say. Since not much has changed politically, and the construction industry was at a very slow, anemic recovery pace, the optimistic view would have been that if the Republicans somehow triumphed, the business world would have felt better about things, capital expenditures would go through the roof, and the pace of construction recovery accelerate. Instead of that, I think the opposite has happened and therefore while the pace of recovery is not decelerating (at least I hope it's not decelerating), I think it's going to be more of a slow-burn recovery.