Construction spending details are a real eye opener. 
Please consider the Monthly Construction Spending report from the Commerce Department for June 2026.
Total Construction
- Construction spending during June 2026 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,166.5 billion, 0.1 percent (±0.8 percent) below the revised May estimate of $2,168.5 billion.
- The June figure is 3.2 percent (±1.5 percent) below the June 2025 estimate of $2,237.7 billion.
- During the first six months of this year, construction spending amounted to $1,046.9 billion, 3.5 percent (±1.0 percent) below the $1,084.5 billion for the same period in 2025.
Private Construction
- Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,622.5 billion, 0.1 percent (±0.5 percent) below the revised May estimate of $1,624.5 billion.
- Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $877.1 billion in June, 0.3 percent (±1.3 percent) below the revised May estimate of $879.9 billion.
- Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $745.3 billion in June, 0.1 percent (±0.5 percent)above the revised May estimate of $744.6 billion.
Public Construction
- In June, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $544.1 billion, virtually unchanged from (±1.6 percent) the revised May estimate of $544.0 billion.
- Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $113.1 billion, virtually unchanged from (±2.5 percent) the revised May estimate of $113.0 billion.
- Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $150.9 billion, 0.1 percent (±4.4 percent) below the revised May estimate of $151.1 billion.
The published report provides scant details on what going on. Here’s a better breakdown.
Nonresidential Private Construction Spending Change from Month Ago
Key Nonresidential Construction Points Month-Over-Month
- Construction spending has crashed except for data centers and power.
- The power is needed for the data centers.
- Trump’s manufacturing revival is in reverse along with commercial.
Nonresidential Private Construction Spending Change from Year Ago
Key Nonresidential Construction Points Year-Over-Year
- Nonresidential Total: -36.8 billion
- Data Centers: +21.4 billion
- Office Excluding Data Centers: -6.2 billion
- Manufacturing: -48.0 billion
- Commercial: -6.5 billion
- Power: +6.5 billion
- Communication: +0.9 billion
- Transportation: -0.4 billion
- Education -1.1 billion
- Health Care -2.7 billion
Major Private Construction Spending Components change from Year Ago in Millions (lead chart details)
Key Private Construction Points Year-Over-Year
- Total: -80.1 billion
- Residential: -43.3 billion
- Nonresidential: -38.8 billion
- Manufacturing: -48.0 billion
- Data Centers: +21.4 billion
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Banks don’t lend deposits. This is the biggest error in the history of the world. Not even Mises gets it right.
The all-time low in the ratio of DDs to TDs in 2008 led to the spectacular drop in velocity in the last half of that year.
See:Steve Keen was right: “Banks don’t “intermediate loans”, they “originate loans”.
See: BANKS DON’T LEND MONEY (youtube.com) Dr. Richard Werner
[Edwards attended Oxford University in England on a Rhodes scholarship and earned a doctorate in economics at Cornell University. He spent a year teaching at Cambridge University in England in 1932. He taught at New York University in 1954, the Chicago School from 1955-1963, the University of Virginia, and the University of Oregon from 1963-1971.]
the U.S. Golden Age in Capitalism was driven by “increased money velocity which financed about two-thirds of a growing GNP, while the increase in the actual quantity of money has finance only one-third.” In other words, the ratio of the money supply to GNP has risen ever since.
Banks don’t lend deposits.
Correct
Lending creates deposits.
I have been preaching this for two decades
The dye is being cast. Enjoy it while you can.
It’s indelible, so be careful not to get any of that dye on you, lest you be marked for life.
The background of fiction and imagination about AI presented the public with the exact opposite of what it actually is. Startrek showed Data and the cold logic of Spock as deeply moral, ethical and forthright. The reality is that it is sociopathic in character. I never witness anyone in authority observe that a profound lack of truthfulness endangers humanity – whether about Trump, Netanyahu, Socialists or anyone in charge. I am baffled as to how the system continues with this broad and deep acceptance of lying or deliberate deception.
“…profound lack of truthfulness endangers humanity ” That explains religion (Especially “C”hristianity) where lies fill the coffers.
I have never seen an honest political leader elected (maybe I’ve never seen an honest political leader at all).
Good comment, 8th. Have you heard about the AI bots that have hacked several companies? Sure, there was – at some point – a human who prompted them to go hack companies. In that sense, one could say it’s not the AI’s “fault”, but the existence of AI magnifies human maleficence. Besides, at some point AI will be prompting itself (it probably already is), so debating whether it was always inherently dangerous or evil will be beside the point.
Illuminating post. Nothing being constructed except data centers and what may power them, and goodness gracious when that’s not enough power and they come for the residential consumer of power, the mood will shift even harder against them. I get dystopian about it but imagine a world where the people determine they must take out data centers in a way that Ukraine or Iran have had to push back on Russia and the U.S. Drones can work in so many ways to upend apple carts or data centers or networks of flock cameras or what have you. I’m one to believe the unrest is much closer to the surface than it once was.
This is the third major bubble since 1999. This one is even more massive and unstable than the last bubbles. The VIX will go to 100 when this one bursts and the QQQ will fall by 60%.
Just sayin OUCH in advance!
All hail our new data center overlords
^This. It’s data centers. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were paying for (or generating) their own electricity. Sounds like many of them prearrange their electricity cost and then they start monopolizing power consumption and everybody around them has to pay more. Leave it to Republicans to act as though these things are an unalloyed good that should be directly or indirectly subsidized.
So essentially our entire economy is being propped up on a wooden leg that is infested with worms. It’s like nobody remembers this exact thing in tech 30 years ago. The only difference being that this time we have no cushion to land on.
No, the rich will get another bailout, the peons will be left holding the bag. Same as it ever was.
Note that we only hear “but we can’t afford it!” when it comes to useless and wasteful fripperies like healthcare, public education, or infrastructure. Yet, money is always available when it comes time to bail the billionaires out at the casino, or to put another war of aggression on the national credit card.
And that is exactly why socialists just won another election today. The media is now panicking about it because the writing is on the wall for them. MAGA is dead, and #I’mwithher dems are next.
Residential apartments (avg 300 units/per site) are being built around me EVERYWHERE
Here comes the Section 8 diversity I have longed for all my life