Multiply this by what's happening across the country for municipal, commercial and residential construction, and Houston, we may have a problem

Old Town (ME) project rejected as bids come in 100% over budget.

The low bid for the work came from Pittsfield-based Cianbro, which quoted a price of $39.2 million on a project for which the Department of Transportation had budgeted $20.1 million.

….. [It’s unclear what the department will do to ensure the bridge is replaced. Because Stillwater Avenue is a major Old Town artery, the road work was expected to cause traffic disruptions. The department expected to put up a temporary bridge upriver as a detour. Now, the timeline is unknown.

…. The Department of Transportation in 2019 called off $45 million in planned roadwork as bids came in higher than anticipated.

Roadwork isn’t the only category of construction with inflated costs. The cost of three Northern Light hospital construction projects that are getting underway will cost 40 percent more than initially thought when the state approved them last fall, as building materials have become more expensive and it becomes more difficult to find enough workers.

A number of readers, including EOS most recently, have posted here about the months-long delays in getting materials for renovation and new construction projects, and the soaring costs of those same projects. The related phenomena aren’t going to help drive housing costs down, though maybe the recession will:

Great headline from Stephen Green:

IF YOU HAVE TO ASK, YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT: How Bad Will the Biden Recession Be?

And this: Related?  Fox Business:

A sharp, unexpected downturn in trucking demand since the beginning of March could be evidence of a looming economic recession, according to Bank of America strategists.

A Tuesday analyst note from Ken Hoexter, the managing director of Bank of America’s trucking research, shows that shippers see rapidly softening demand for trucks, with a gauge tracking truckload demand falling for the fourth consecutive month to its lowest level since June 2020.

That is “near freight recession level,” Hoexter wrote. On an annual basis, the gauge has plummeted about 23%.

UPDATE: Economy shrunk by 1.4% first quarter, inflation rate 6.9%.

This may not be such bad news for the Democrats because, if they do lose the House this fall, they can spend the time leading up to the 2024 elections bashing and blaming the Republicans for “their” handling of the economy. You can bet that they’ll have the full-throated support of corporate media in that effort.

CNBC found an “expert” to calm our nerves: “This is noise, not signal. The economy is not falling into recession.” That’s nice, but if there’s anything the past two years of COVID have taught me it’s to distrust and ignore almost every single individual claiming to be an expert on anything, especially public health and economics.