Wash Post Rips USDA’s Rural Development Loans

<div style="text-align: center"><img src="/files/u2/usdaseal125.jpg" title="usda seal" alt="usda seal" height="124" hspace="3" vspace="3" width="125" /></div>The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120401958_pf.html" target="_blank">Washington Post continues its examination</a> — evisceration might be another word — of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development program.   This morning's chapter chronicles the USDA's loan program for private businesses.<br /><br />There are lots of horror stories that ought to sound familiar to anyone who has examined these kinds of programs in the states: loans go to dicey characters; promises of jobs are often never fulfilled; wages are low in the jobs that are created; loans are given to businesses that hire undocumented workers. One North Carolina man invested in an old theater, only to have the USDA give a low-interest loan to a competing multiplex that opened nearby. <br /><br />This is a good description of old-style economic development, and why it seldom seems to work.