THE DEVELOPMENT BANK AND THE INITIAL FAILURE OF THE INDUSTRIAL PROGRAM IN PUERTO RICO, 1942-1948
Title:
THE DEVELOPMENT BANK AND THE INITIAL FAILURE OF THE INDUSTRIAL PROGRAM IN PUERTO RICO, 1942-1948
Author:
José L. Bolívar Fresneda
Appeared in:
Centro journal
Paging:
Volume 20 (2008) nr. 2 pages 127-147
Year:
2008
Contents:
The Development Bank and the Development Company were meant to be the two pillars of the industrialization effort implemented in Puerto Rico at the start of the Second World War. It was hoped that this effort would lift the island out of its severe economic and social crisis. The Development Bank was created to take risks and finance industrial loans. However, deeming them too speculative, it concentrated its effort on building its wealth by investing in risk-adverse governmental backed bonds and similar obligations, as well as issuing bonds for infrastructure projects. It therefore ignored or sidetracked the reason for its creation. Over the following sixty years, its successor, the Government Development Bank, continued on this path, shedding its responsibility for promoting industrial loans and development, and instead, concentrating on serving as a governmental bank. This paper examines the origins of the Development Bank and explores the reasons it sidetracked its development functions.
Publisher:
The City University of New York (provided by DOAJ)
Journal description