With no new federal taxes or debt, President Franklin Roosevelt’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) spread electricity throughout the nation; built highways, bridges, tunnels and municipal water systems; financed the development of high-speed trains; helped people rebuild their lives destroyed by natural disasters; and saved thousands of homes, businesses, farms and banks from bankruptcy. Then the RFC transformed the U.S. military from 17th in size into the world’s Arsenal of Democracy. The RFC built and owned the enormous plants that manufactured the airplanes, trucks, ships and tanks required to win WWII and leased them to corporations to operate. It created vital and enduring industries from scratch and produced and amassed strategic and essential materials at home and abroad, just like what we need now. 



Congressional bill H.R.4052 with more than 40 sponsors is poised to implement a transformational national infrastructure bank modeled on the successes of the RFC.

Emmy Award-winning author Steven Fenberg and former International Monetary Fund senior economist Alphecca Muttardy joined for a compelling Zoom dialogue on October 24, 2024. Watch now how the profound successes of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation can be adapted to address the urgent needs of the United States today. 

Learn how to help repair and rebuild our nation. (Watch the video here.)

Steven Fenberg has written extensively about the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Fenberg is the executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning documentary “Brother, Can You Spare a Billion,” which was narrated by Walter Cronkite and broadcast nationally on PBS. He is also the author of “Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good,” a comprehensive award-winning examination of the RFC. See www.stevenfenberg.com for more information.

Alphecca Muttardy is a former International Monetary Fund senior economist and is the chief economic advisor of the Coalition for a National Infrastructure Bank.