Passing through Vail, Colorado last week I witnessed four of those Obama Stimulus highway construction signs at $20,000 a pop (hat tip Steve Gilbert)

Highway resurfacing work on I-70, and other improvements to the road. These signs bracketed the west and east approaches to Vail – as narrow a little valley as you can build in. I mean it is JAMMED down in there with resorts, hotels bars restaurants and shops.

There were maybe 200 road crew working the project. Meanwhile, the real stimulus was going like Jack the bear in town … four of the biggest, most sprawling and truly impressive resort building projects I’ve witnessed in Vail – and that’s nearly 35 years familiarity with the place. These projects are huge (and in this ”terrible” economy!). Not Abu Dhabi or Trump huge but for Vail … I sure wish I had that video camera so you could see how much square footage investors are shoe horning into what already looked like maximum density.

The real stimulus is private sector investments seeking a profit, the thousands of skilled and unskilled labor employed, the millions of free market dollars going to concrete companies, drywall, electricians, lumbers, roofers, framers … you name it. Furnishings, fittings … wow, it’s hard to calculate what four of these behemoths would cost.

And did I say private dollars … not government dollars?

That’s your real stimulus. And in the face of our government sucking trillions of dollars out of the money supply.