Ordinarily loans to foreign countries are linked to a verifiable purpose such as debt service equipment purchase specific commercial projects or short-term commodity transactions During the last three years however Soviet-bloc nations have received bargain-basement loans from Western and Japanese financial markets with no strings attached Several months ago First Chicago Corp was the lead bank in a $200 million loan to the Soviet Union unrelated to any specific purpose with a magnanimous interest rate of 75 percent Inasmuch as First Chicago reported a second quarter loss of $698 million one would assume that its stockholders might be wary of this transaction Obviously American farmers faced with foreclosure would jump at the chance to restructure their loans at the interest rate accorded the Soviet Union So would many small-business men or home buyers who are paying upwards of 12 percent on their loans
