Aired on June 14, 2026

• Great Depression, New Deal, Capitalism

When one considers the American interstates, rails, bridges, aqueducts, dams, and other major infrastructure projects built during the Depression and post WWII, we can thank the vision of Jesse Jones for much of it. In 1932, President Herbert Hoover established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to make loans to banks, railroads, and insurance companies and appointed Jesse Jones to the bi-partisan board. Soon after his inauguration, President Franklin Roosevelt supercharged the RFC, made Jones chair, and the government agency began buying preferred stock in banks to stabilize them and help them lend again. The book “Unprecedented Power” by Steven Fenberg tells this story. The good news for modern Americans is that the model for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation is being revived in the National Infrastructure Bank. Listen in and meet our guest:

Writer Steven Fenberg discovered Jesse Jones was reputedly the most powerful person in the nation next to President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression and World War II. As chairman of the federal government’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)—the nation’s indispensable infrastructure bank—Jones initiated and managed massive New Deal agencies that saved and expanded the nation’s economy and then shifted the RFC’s priority from domestic economics to global defense to fight and win WWII. Fenberg told this remarkable story as executive producer and co-writer of the Emmy Award winning documentary film “Brother, Can You Spare a Billion?” that was narrated by Walter Cronkite and broadcast nationally on PBS. Fenberg then wrote the biography “Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism, and the Common Good.”

“On The Porch” is hosted by Randolph ”Randy” Voller. He is also the publisher of Chatham County Line. Randy welcomes guests to the show who are from the communities of art, academia, business, and politics for friendly and informative conversations. “On The Porch” airs every Sunday at 6 and 11am, then 6 and 9pm on WCHL-FM 97.9. The show also streams on ChapelBoro.com. Current and previous shows of “On The Porch” are posted as on-demand, ad-free podcasts at ChapelBoro.com, Spotify and Apple Podcasts
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