Politics and the Financial Crisis Slow the Drive to Privatize

Source:  LESLIE WAYNE, New York Times, June 5, 2009

It was hailed as a win-win for Main Street and Wall Street -- a way for states and cities, along with financiers, to make some money.  But now privatization, the selling of public airports, bridges, roads and the like to private investors, looks like a boom that wasn't. Deals are collapsing. Airy hopes of quick profits are vanishing. And what was celebrated as a new wave in finance is, for the moment, barely making a ripple. 

What happened? The financial crisis, for starters. The easy money that Wall Street was counting on to finance its purchases has largely disappeared. Then the Obama administration unintentionally damped interest with its $787 billion economic stimulus package, a windfall that local governments are now racing to spend.