| The Louisville Community Development Bank (LCDB) is classified as a Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI). Through a plethora of monetary initiatives, CDFIs aim to create a level of economic stability for the distressed communities they serve.;The LCDB forcefully argues that it can alleviate the deep poverty in its investment area via its activities. To explore that argument, this thesis endorses a standard—conceptualized as capitalism as justice—which (1) stresses the equal role that class, race, urban political, and social forces play in poverty perpetuation and (2) sets forth five goals designed to redress select elements of each force. One should find the LCDB able to substantively meet each of the goals of the standard if the institution is as strong of an anti-poverty solution as it purports to be.;Utilizing a case study of the LCDB with a special emphasis on the Bank's (1) short history, (2) strategy, (3) capabilities, (4) achievements, and (5) shortcomings, this thesis explores the extent to which the LCDB is actually capable of moving its impoverished investment area away from those poverty defining elements and, therefore, toward some semblance of capitalism as justice. |
