Recent Stories with tag loans

Today the World Trade Organization released a confidential interim report on Boeing subsidies that the Wall Street Journal is already reporting criticizes payments to Boeing from the Department of Defense and NASA. And "without going into details," Ecology and Transport Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said, the report "finds in favour of the essence of the European Union's complaint."

UPDATE: Senator Maria Cantwell has issued a statement as well:

While I can’t discuss the details of the WTO’s preliminary ruling, I can say that the WTO panel rejected 75 to 80 percent of the European Union’s originally alleged subsidy claims. In dollar terms, the WTO found only a small fraction of the $20 billion in subsidies alleged by the EU. Most of those subsidies have long since been withdrawn. Importantly, the findings did not identify any existing prohibited subsidies, contrary to some media reports.

Allegedly unfair subsidies for Airbus and Boeing have been taking up a good deal of WTO staff time recently. France's stalwart defense of the WTO's ruling represents a marked shift since Airbus was found to have received some $20 billion in prohibited European subsidies in June. Then, the Wall Street Journal could find little WTO credibility on European shores:

Airbus officials said the EU would appeal the ruling. "There's not a single WTO case that hasn't been changed on appeal," an Airbus official said.

While on the one hand, the amount of aid appears roughly comparable in both instances (some $20 billion for Airbus and $24 billion for Boeing, which includes Washington state's tax breaks for the aircraft manufacturer), Boeing emphasized in a statement that there's subsidies and then there's subsidies.... (more)

Mayor McGinn

"As of late last year, only 28 percent of small businesses were using bank loans, the lowest rate since 1993," notes the Seattle Jobs Plan, unveiled yesterday by Mayor McGinn.

A chunk of the $50 million in business financing that the city plans to distribute within an 18-month window will go to start-ups and small- and medium-sized businesses looking for loans to help them invest in operations or expand.

Millions more in tax exempt stimulus bonds and tax credits are targeted at large businesses, with a priority given for "projects that create or retain permanent jobs, increase the availability of goods, and serve as an anchor for future economic development in low-income communities."

It's a plan that seems to include the kitchen sink--job training and preparation for college is in there ($2 million), interim parking lots near light rail stations, street food vendors, a city-owned broadband network expanded to homes and businesses, urban farming, and energy-efficient retrofitting ($26 million).

Totaling it all up, the city expects to create around 10,000 jobs in the next few years, reports Seattlepi.com, while it's not really on the hook for much of the financing: "roughly $70 million for business loans and tax credits come from new federal funds and leveraged local dollars from partnerships."... (more)