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Reconstruction Finance Corporation (view source)
Revision as of 19:32, February 27, 2009
, 19:32, February 27, 2009→Spies: postwar
The Petroleum Reserves Corporation was transferred to the Office of Economic Warfare, which was consolidated into the [[Foreign Economic Administration]], which was transferred to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and changed to the War Assets Corporation. The War Assets Corporation was dissolved as soon as practicable after March 25, 1946. Presidential aide and alleged Soviet spy, Lauchlin Currie headed the office during this time.
The Petroleum Reserves Corporation was transferred to the Office of Economic Warfare, which was consolidated into the [[Foreign Economic Administration]], which was transferred to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and changed to the War Assets Corporation. The War Assets Corporation was dissolved as soon as practicable after March 25, 1946. Presidential aide and alleged Soviet spy, Lauchlin Currie headed the office during this time.
==Spies==
===Spies===
[[Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]], who headed a group of Soviet agents working in the U.S. Government during World War II, was transferred, along with the rest of the division from the Treasury Department's War Asset's Administration into to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, where it became the War Assets Corporation.
[[Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]], who headed a group of Soviet agents working in the U.S. Government during World War II, was transferred, along with the rest of the division from the Treasury Department's War Asset's Administration into to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, where it became the War Assets Corporation.
==Postwar==
RFC engaged in numerous loan activities after the war to help small business. For example in 1949 Lustron Steel was responsible for one-tenth of the outstanding industrial and commercial loans of the agency. In 1946 its owner Carl Strandlund inspired by the availability of RFC loans, the severe postwar housing shortage and wartime methods of mass production of ships, developed the idea of mass-producing steel-frame homes for sale by local dealers. His ranch-style house used porcelain-enameled steel for exterior and interior walls, window frames, and door jambs, and ceiling panels; components were made in Columbus, Ohio. Lustron stymied by the myriad of local building regulations that mandated conventional materials, and by the impatience of RFC which cut its losses and foreclosed. <ref> Douglas Knerr, ''Suburban Steel: The Magnificent Failure of the Lustron Corporation, 1945-1951.'' 2004.</ref>
After the war the RFC took over the Smaller War Plants Corporation (SWPC), a wartime agency that provided direct loans to small business. In 1950-53 the Small Defense Plants Administration (SDPA) certified small businesses to the RFC when it had determined the businesses to be competent to perform the work of government contracts, especially relating to the Korean war effort. The RFC was replaced in 1953 by the U.S. Small Business Administration. It is still in operation and 20 million small businesses have received direct or indirect help from one or another of those SBA programs.<ref> See [http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/history/index.html SBA history]</ref>
==See also==
==See also==