Fortune Magazine recently ran an article on the TVA (“Uncle
Sam’s River”, Oct, 28th.) As
a native Tennessean, I read the article with great interest. In the President’s most recent budget
proposal, TVA apparently was put on the disposition block.
Probably the vast majority of Americans have no idea that
they own a utility company, or that it borrows with government-backed
debt. The Tennessee Valley Authority is
a vestige of the Roosevelt administration’s efforts to end the Great
Depression. It brought electricity to
great swaths of the rural South.
I propose that we Americanize TVA:
1.
Convert TVA to a “C Corporation” with approximately
350 million shares;
2.
Give each holder of a Social Security number one
share; and
3.
Seek a listing on an exchange.
The American taxpayer has bought and paid for TVA and should
own it directly. And this would provide numerous
benefits: Americans would feel a little richer, TVA would no longer be a credit
drag on the full faith and credit of the U.S., and TVA would become subject to
real governance via exchange rules, the SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley rules, etc.
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