Many of the bridges in Missouri have a lot of problems. They’re old and they aren’t as solid or reliable as they used to be, or as they should be. That’s bad, but what’s worse is that there is no longer any private financing to help fix the bridges and make sure that they don’t fall down or come apart, potentially injuring or killing a lot of people.

There was a plan for some private financing, but all of a sudden that plan got changed, and that was mostly caused by the economy. There is so much uncertainty, in the stock market and the rest of the economy today, that the people who were going to offer financial help for the Missouri bridges backed out, over fears that they wouldn’t have enough financial backing to do what they had planned.

While it remains likely that Missouri will get its bridges fixed, it’s going to have to wait a little while.