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20-499: PRIDCO was created by the government of Puerto Rico in 1942 along with the Puerto Rico Government Development Bank (GDB) during the governorship of Rexford G. Tugwell . Its purpose was to finance the construction and operational management of industrial parks where stateside manufacturing companies could find low-rent venues for their operations. For decades, PRIDCO operated as a subsidiary of

40-611: A decision maker. Early use of the term "brain trust" was patterned on the use of the term "trust" to depict economic consolidation within an industry. This was a subject of much interest at the time and led to the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890. In 1888 the Springfield [Missouri] Leader used the term in connection with the consolidation of newspapers in the state: "[Too many newspapers in Columbia, Mo.] overstocked

60-587: A fiscal agent, contrary to the model followed by most states, in which each agency and political subdivision is responsible for issuing its own bonds. During its formative years, the GDB helped financially structure the Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority, the new publicly owned electric company that generated much of its power from a hydroelectric system. During its first decade, GDB financed infrastructure development, particularly

80-634: A law that requires supporting and helping veteran business owners. Along with the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture, in 2019, the organization discussed plans to import coffee beans from different locations in order to mix and cultivate new coffee plants in Puerto Rico. In August, 2019 employees of PRIDCO protested against the direction of PROMESA , the non-elected board working on restructuring Puerto Rico's debt. PRIDCO employees demanded more transparency and more consideration for

100-536: Is evidenced by the "machine made" opinions of gullible editors. Around the same time the term "brain trust" was employed in a slightly different sense by journalists covering Henry Cabot Lodge . During the Spanish–American War in 1898, a group of journalists would gather in Senator Lodge's committee room and discuss with him the progress of the war. Lodge called this group his "board of strategy," but

120-589: The Puerto Rico Economic Development Administration (PREDA); the agency that oversaw the systematic operation which transformed the economy of Puerto Rico from an agricultural economy into an industrial one known as Operation Bootstrap . Bootstrap was the brainchild of PREDA's first administrator, Teodoro Moscoso . Other notable industrialists served in PREDA as well, such as Hugo David Storer Tavarez who served as

140-449: The government of Puerto Rico . The bank, along with its subsidiaries and affiliates, serves as the principal entity through which Puerto Rico channels its issuance of bonds . As an overview, the different executive agencies of the government of Puerto Rico and its government-owned corporations either issue bonds with the bank as a proxy , or owe debt to the bank itself (as the bank is a government-owned corporation as well). The Bank

160-714: The GDB established, financed and gave to the people of Puerto Rico the new Puerto Rico Museum of Art , which, within years, has become the island's second-best art museum, after the Ponce Museum of Art founded by Luis A. Ferré , a philanthropist and former Governor. The GDB is in the process of winding down its operations in an orderly fashion under Title VI of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, Publ. Law 114-187 of June 30, 2016 (PROMESA) . Brain Trust Brain trust

180-645: The Roosevelt brain trust initially consisted of a group of Columbia Law School professors (Moley, Tugwell, and Berle). These men played a key role in shaping the policies of the First New Deal (1933). Although they never met together as a group, they each had Roosevelt's ear. Many newspaper editorials and editorial cartoons ridiculed them as impractical idealists. The core of the Roosevelt brain trust later consisted of men associated with Harvard Law School (Cohen, Corcoran, and Frankfurter). These men played

200-569: The Senate press corp called it "the brain trust." The sense of the term as depicting a collection of well informed experts was this sense that seemed to catch hold. For example, in 1901 a group of journalists in a state press association was called a "brain trust" by the Deseret Evening News. It was not long before the term described a group that was so expert that their advice would be almost inevitably agreed to and acted upon. Such

220-612: The brain market of that town, and the Columbian and Statesman formed a 'trust.' ... While sugar, coffee, lumber, whiskey, iron, coal and other trusts are forming we can see no reason why a 'brain trust' can't be organized." Around the same time the Philadelphia Press penned a witticism concerning free traders that made the rounds of U.S. papers. The joke implies the lack of thought output, just as "trusts (consolidation of productive units) reduced industrial output: "Some of

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240-515: The development of low-cost housing. Between 1951 and 1965, the GDB issued over $ 1 billion in bonds to finance the islands' infrastructure, contributing to Puerto Rico's economic growth. It also spurred the growth of the private sector, financing Puerto Rico's first condominium and several of its first shopping centers built in 1956, when private banks were reticent in assuming such ground-breaking risks. During former Gov. Pedro Rosselló 's administration, and under Marcos Rodríguez Ema 's presidency,

260-418: The director of promotion for some years, and William Riefkohl who served as its deputy administrator from 1988 to 1992. As PREDA continued to transform Puerto Rico, PRIDCO eventually became an independent agency. A government reorganization eventually merged PREDA into PRIDCO, establishing PRIDCO as the focal agency for all manufacturing in Puerto Rico while PREDA ceased to exist. Today, PRIDCO also oversees

280-460: The free trade shouters display enough ignorance to excite a suspicion that they have been made the victims of a brain 'trust.'" Using the term as an analogy to industrial trusts seems to have spread widely in 1888. For example, lawyers who signed a fee-fixing agreement were called a "brain trust." In a long lament of the independence of small editors, the Marion [Ohio] Star says that a "Brains Trust"

300-595: The program to promote Puerto Rican rums which enjoy cover-over subsidies when sold in the United States. The agency is also now under the umbrella of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce of Puerto Rico (DDEC), an executive department . In 2019, the agency was tasked with creating a database of business owners who are veterans of the United States military with a mandate to adhere to

320-543: The term Brains Trust (shortened to Brain Trust later) when he applied it to the close group of experts that surrounded United States presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt . According to Roosevelt Brain Trust member Raymond Moley , Kieran coined the term, however Rosenman contended that Louis Howe, a close advisor to the President, first used the term but used it derisively in a conversation with Roosevelt. The core of

340-449: The work PRIDCO has been doing for decades. In early 2020, the police were investigating the illegal transfer of funds by PRIDCO to overseas accounts. Puerto Rico Government Development Bank The Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico ( GDB ) — Spanish : Banco Gubernamental de Fomento para Puerto Rico ( BGF )— is the government bond issuer, intragovernmental bank , fiscal agent , and financial advisor of

360-439: Was a term that originally described a group of close advisers to a political candidate or incumbent; these were often academics who were prized for their expertise in particular fields. The term is most associated with the group of advisers of Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidential administration. More recently, however, the use of the term has expanded beyond politics to encompass any specialized group of advisers aligned to

380-664: Was the brainchild of Governor Rexford Guy Tugwell , who signed Law 253 of May 13, 1942, creating the institution in charge of economic development for the Government of Puerto Rico . A subsequent law in 1945 expanded its responsibilities to include serving as the fiscal agent for, and financial advisor of, the government of Puerto Rico. The highly centralized government structure set up by Tugwell, one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's Brain Trusters required such

400-765: Was the reference to the eight senators who made up the "Brain Trust of the Senate" as described by William Allen White in the Saturday Evening Post . That use became regular for the next two decades, as can be seen from the use by Time magazine in 1928, which ran a headline on a meeting of the American Council on Learned Societies titled "Brain Trust". Franklin D. Roosevelt 's speechwriter and legal counsel Samuel Rosenman suggested having an academic team to advise Roosevelt in March 1932. In 1932, The New York Times writer James Kieran first used

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