Export-Import Bank’s Secret Dealings Demonstrate the Problem With Crony Capitalism

You know, we almost killed it. But the establishment GOP saved Ex-Im at the last minute. (Joining with Dems.) We bet Trump will let it live and perhaps give the agency new life.

That would be a shame. But you know – jobs. That’s how this corporate welfare will be sold.

(From The Daily Signal)

Ex-Im opponents are hoping that the president will, at the very least, maintain the status quo—although the best course of action would be to eliminate the bank altogether. (More on that below.) But the Ex-Im lobby is pushing for Trump to nominate board candidates and negotiate their Senate confirmation. Doing so would free up billions of dollars in subsidies for Boeing Co., General Electric Co., Caterpillar, and the like—that is, multinational corporations that do not lack access to capital and which can finance exports without taxpayer handouts.

On the other hand, Congress could—at least conceivably—exercise leadership and phase the bank out of existence. It is not as if there is a shortage of private export financing: U.S. exports totaled $2.2 trillion in fiscal year 2016, with Ex-Im supporting just 0.22 percent ($5 billion).

Who benefitted from that $5 billion? Ex-Im officials are keeping mum, although the transactions are supposed to be public. But if allowed to operate in secret, citizens and their representatives in Congress cannot determine whether the bank is complying with the $10 million transaction limit or with the other rules it has violated in the past.

Click here for the article.

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/