A judge's decision in favor of Georgia in the ongoing dispute over Lake Lanier's water between us, Florida and Alabama took the pressure off Atlanta (temporarily) in the 'water wars.' But according to Peter Orszag, former director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, Atlanta is only a harbinger of things to come. Now a vice-chairman of global banking at Citigroup, Orszag is agitating for U.S. states and cities to begin addressing a future of water shortages now. Once again, the issue is one of infrastructure and money; U.S. water systems are aging, and the fixes are going to be expensive. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Orszag (the banker) argues that with interest rates still low, now is the perfect time to borrow funds to fix the pipes. But he has a point. [Bloomberg]
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