The Reconstruction Finance Corporation's Murky History

Publication Date: December 1983

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Clark Nardinelly

Research Area: Banking and finance

Keywords: Economy

Type: Report

Abstract:

The activities of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation were complex and coincided with major economic and political upheavals in the U.S. An overall assessment, therefore, is difficult. As an emergency financial institution, the RFC was successful, especially after March 1933. As a national investment bank, however, the RFC was a sordid failure. It is surprising, then, that most of the recent proposals to revive the RFC do not envision it as an emergency financial institution, but as a national investment bank. These proposals can only be based on what the RFC might have been--not what it was.