RFC

"With typical exuberance, Kaiser did not wait for final approval to get started. Fourteen months earlier he had commandeered the services of Clay Bedford in setting up the Richmond shipyards. In mid-February 1942, he called chief engineer George Havas and rumbled, “George, you’re going to build me a steel mill.” Havas, as familiar as Bedford with his boss’s style, asked, “What kind of a steel mill?” Kaiser replied, “Oh, just a steel mill, a small one.” Yet from the beginning, Kaiser had no intention of being limited to a “small” mill. The initial RFC loan was a modest $ 22 million, but Kaiser was back in Jones’ office within weeks, seeking another $ 100 million for plant expansion."

"With typical exuberance, Kaiser did not wait for final approval to get started. Fourteen months earlier he had commandeered the services of Clay Bedford in setting up the Richmond shipyards. In mid-February 1942, he called chief engineer George Havas and rumbled, “George, you’re going to build me a steel mill.” Havas, as familiar as Bedford with his boss’s style, asked, “What kind of a steel mill?” Kaiser replied, “Oh, just a steel mill, a small one.” Yet from the beginning, Kaiser had no intention of being limited to a “small” mill. The initial RFC loan was a modest $22 million, but Kaiser was back in Jones’ office within weeks, seeking another $100 million for plant expansion."

"Herbert Hoover had created the RFC in the 1930s as a federal agency to invest government funds in banks in difficulty—provided the banks’ managers were willing to create viable plans for restructuring their lending and investment portfolios. It was Franklin Roosevelt, however, who transformed the RFC into a much more powerful and active development agency. In the midst of the Depression, the RFC not only refinanced banks but also reached out to the nation’s beleaguered cities and industries. With great success, the RFC was used to support bold and visionary federal initiatives that helped to create better lives for many Americans. For example, the TVA and the Rural Electrification Agency brought public power and electricity to corners of the country that, even in the twentieth century, did not enjoy these basic modern necessities."

"Similarly, I came to believe that an institution like the RFC could still be used to promote the economic revitalization of such crucial national assets as Lockheed. A government agency should be formed, I felt, that would work with business and labor to supervise a national recovery program. In exchange for new capital, this agency could demand the management changes, the increased labor productivity, and the price disciplines that would be necessary to bolster American businesses and even its cities during the economic and social crisis caused by the current recession and oil embargo. I had found a disciplined and yet effective plan, I was certain, for the United States to make its way successfully through a time of financial uncertainty and emerge with confidence into a new, prosperous era."