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You'd be forgiven if you'd never heard of the US International Development Finance Corporation. Even by Washington standards, DFC sounds like an agency specifically designed to make your eyes glaze over, but push past your initial misapprehension at the label, and DFC is actually one of the most essential agencies in the District of Columbia and a key player in our fight against the Chinese Communist Party.
For years, Beijing has used its economic heft to expand its influence through initiatives like Belt and Road. Beijing invests in infrastructure in the developing world, locking down access to critical minerals and making itself indispensable to countries that might otherwise rather deal with us. In response, America realized, that maybe letting China corner everything important is a bad idea.
Enter the DFC. In its own words, the agency mobilizes private capital to advance U.S. foreign policy and economic development. So rather than simply handing out foreign aid and hoping for the best, DFC utilizes the power of capitalism to counter Chinese communism. What's more American than that?
That raises some interesting questions, though. How is this any different than the scuttled USAID program, filled to the brim with wokeness? Where should America be investing? And can Washington actually behave like an investor without eventually devolving into bureaucratic bloat? Here to answer those questions is Ben Black, the current CEO at the DFC.
Elizabeth Slattery
Michelle Cordero
Tim Doescher