WASHINGTON – Wall Street surged last Friday to close the week on an upward note. The NASDAQ led the way with a 1.53 percent (33.74 points) increase, followed closely by the S&P 500 (1.32 percent, 14.41 points) and the Dow Jones (1.24 percent, 127.83 points). Unfortunately, after taking Monday off in recognition of Labor Day investors have lost some of their vigor.

According to CNNMoney.com, stocks are poised to fall at the opening bell today and will probably struggle throughout much of the morning. After a long weekend the September malaise seems likely to set in.

According to MarketWatch, the fact that no major economic reports or data are due out will likely restrict trading activity. Couple that with global markets generally heading downward and you get a situation like the one we see today in New York.

However, stepping outside the investment sector we see there are actually some good indicators for the overall economy.

First and foremost, according to Reuters, President Obama has chosen to kick off the 2010 midterm campaign with a government-directed jobs program. The President wants to activate a new $50 billion jobs program to focus on refurbishing infrastructure for airports, roads, and railways around the United States.

According to some estimates, the U.S. is in need of nearly $2 trillion in infrastructure repairs in the next decade. The cost of urban sprawl in our automobile dominated society is that we spend a gigantic amount of our time keeping hundreds of thousands of miles of roads passable.

Fixing roads is very costly, but it does come with some added economic bonuses – better roads encourage more driving and more commerce. The same can be said for the rail and air projects as well.

The President is also looking to pass new business tax cuts meant encourage capital investments in the United States. Under the new tax cut businesses could write off 100 percent of equipment costs in U.S. facilities. Manufacturing proponents have spent years asking for such a helping hand.

A little investment in infrastructure, coupled with a few billion in tax cuts, is not going to spur some kind of unprecedented development. What it may do is prove to the American people that the Democrats are still the party to trust when it comes to rebuilding the U.S.

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