By Annie Lowrey, New York Times, Jan. 28/29, 2014

[....] Mr. Obama’s promise zones, which are part of the larger agenda to fight inequality and poverty that he plans to unveil Tuesday night during his State of the Union speech, are just the latest version of an old idea: the politically popular enterprise zone [....]

But experts are broadly skeptical that any federal initiative would be enough to combat either the immediate economic upheaval caused by the loss of coal jobs or the long-term economic torpor that is a product of remoteness, poor infrastructure and an undereducated work force [....]

The appeal has always been bipartisan.[....]

But past enterprise zones have a modest track record. Many seem to have no effect. Others seem to simply subsidize business investment that would have already taken place, or to move business from one county to another without helping the economy over all [....]