Maquiladoras Come (back?) To The Gulf

What to say of Bush's speech to the nation? This part caught my eye:

To meet this goal, I will listen to good ideas from Congress and state and local officials and the private sector. I believe we should start with three initiatives that the Congress should pass. Tonight, I propose the creation of a Gulf opportunity zone, encompassing the region of the disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama.

Within this zone, we should provide immediate incentives for job-creating investment; tax relief for small businesses; incentives to companies that create jobs; and loans and loan guarantees for small businesses, including minority-owned enterprises, to get them up and running again.

Of course, this kind of plan has been used throughout the developing world in a somewhat vain attempt to spur investment. The main result has been zones like the border towns of Mexico, or the EPZs in Malaysia. Whether they actually contribute to growth is more questionable than you'd think.

And of course, it wouldn't be the Bushies without a massive federal giveaway:

Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery. In return, they would pledge to build on the lot, with either a mortgage or help from a charitable organization like Habitat for Humanity.

I hope you didn't like that national park.