Yes, the Obama administration's green loans are unprofitable. They should be.

Critics of green loans forget one crucial thing: The government is not a business

U.S. currency
(Image credit: (Alex Wong/Getty Images))

Last week, we were treated to another instance of completely confused debate over a government financing program, this time the Department of Energy's green loans initiative. The department released a financial report on the program, which has been quite successful. A report at BusinessWeek claimed the program was on track to make a $5 billion profit.

The problem is that the $5 billion figure doesn't take into account the costs of financing or the rate of default. Correcting for that, the program is narrowly unprofitable. Thus, the bean counters over at the Tax Policy Center attacked, wagging their fingers at reporters for not reading the report closely, and accusing the Department of Energy of selling its program in a misleading way.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.