A Moral Case Against the Ex-Im Bank, Once Called “a Fund for Corporate Welfare” by Obama

Over at National Review, Mercatus Center economist and Reason
columnist Veronique de Rugy makes a moral case against the
Export-Import Bank, a government program that subsidizes purchases
of American goods by foreign countries. The Ex-Im Bank, whose
largest beneficiary is aircraft maker Boeing, is pretty universally
recognized as inefficient, unnecessary, and distorting to price
signals. And there’s this:

A major function of the Ex-Im Bank, practically speaking,
is to coax foreign companies to buy Boeing airplanes. It’s
often overlooked that many of the companies buying these planes are
government-owned airlines in poor (or even very poor)
countries.

Take Ethiopian Airlines, for instance. The airline is owned by
the government of Ethiopia, a country where 78 percent of the
population lives on an income below $2 a day, the average life
expectancy was 59 years in 2011, and state health expenditures
amount to a paltry $3 per person. 

And how does Ex-Im encourage Ethiopia to spend its meager
public funds? Perhaps on education improvements, health services,
or critical infrastructure? Don’t be silly. They sell them Boeing
planes, of course! Bad credit, no credit? No problem! The Ex-Im
Bank’s creative financing options will allow any country to put
shiny new Boeing planes in their national airports — no matter how
dire their fiscal position.

Whole piece here.