Reason Foundation

When Detroit was picked as one of the early targets for turnaround, the inner city empowerment zone got a cool $100 million in grants, followed by a share of $17 billion in tax credits for efforts to create inner-city jobs. And the 2005 annual report from the Detroit empowerment zone lists more than $650 million in other federal, state, local government and private grants. Federal subsidies wasted We might as well have stacked those hundreds of millions of dollars and had a bonfire with toasted marshmallows. All we got was a rush -- of jobs and people -- out of Detroit.