I wish President Obama the best of luck. He’s going to need it. The U.S. — and indeed the entire globe — is in the thick of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Ultimately, the economy and the markets will prevail, healing themselves according to their own timetable.

And you know my view: We’re already in a depression … that it’s going to get worse before it gets better … and that the outcome is going to be hyperinflationary, for a variety of reasons that I’ve discussed in previous Money and Markets columns.

But as dire as it all is, that doesn’t mean there’s no money to be made.

Indeed, in addition to natural resources and tangible assets, there’s another sector I’m long-term bullish on due to massive unprecedented government spending, and it’s …

Infrastructure!

Let me first answer the question as to whether or not infrastructure spending helps an economy …

In my opinion, by itself, it does not. And, it can even backfire if pork-barrel spending and pet projects aren’t meticulously monitored.

But there is ample evidence that infrastructure spending can help …

During the Great Depression, for example, Roosevelt’s New Deal put 7 million people back to work between 1933 and 1937, building highways, dams, and bridges.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve’s Index of Industrial Production hit its lowest point of 52.8 in July 1932, just before the New Deal. And by 1937 it surpassed the highs of the late 1920s.

Certainly, I don’t want to sound like every other eternal bull out there. And to be sure, all over the world governments are going to make wasteful decisions and build “bridges to nowhere” trying to stimulate their economies and create jobs.

Nonetheless, there are undoubtedly going to be many successful infrastructure projects and huge profits made via the hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure spending that’s about to be thrown at economies worldwide.

Here in the U.S., President Obama is proposing at least $150 billion be committed to the following three main infrastructure categories …

Category #1:
Physical Property

Roads, railways, bridges, airports, water mains

By far the largest sector, and for good reason …

• According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, an estimated 56% of the nation’s roads are in need of serious updates … while 26.7% of the country’s bridges are “structurally deficient” and 13.6% are “functionally obsolete.”

• The U.S. railroad network is just 94,942 miles, under half of what it was in 1970, but hauls 137% more freight, requiring nearly $200 billion in investment over the next 20 years.

• The U.S. public transit system needs even more money, an estimated $250 billion annually, to improve its D+ rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Mass transit investments would need to increase by $3.2 billion a year just to keep pace with existing needs.

• In 11 short years, 80% of the locks on the nation’s waterways will be functionally obsolete, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. And 122 levees need maintenance and repair.

• The country’s airports and air navigation systems are desperately in need of updates.