Blog

With One Hand U.S. Sanctions Russian Companies, But With the Other… The Export-Import Bank is financing deals with Russian companies hit by U.S. sanctions this past week. Two of the four Russian firms targeted with new sanctions announced last week by the Obama administration have received more than $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer-financed subsidies from the Export-Import Bank. Vnesheconombank (VEB) and Gazprombank – two state-owned Russian banks – have together received more than $1 billion in Ex-Im financing since 2003. Here are the deal details: In 2003, Gazprombank received a five-year loan gu... Read More »

Full Committee Receives Semi-Annual Testimony on Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy On Wednesday, the full committee held a hearing to receive the semi-annual testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on the conduct of monetary policy and the state of the economy. Members of the committee called attention to the Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act introduced by Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) and Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), which the committee held a hearing on last week. "The overwhelming weight of evidence is that monetary policy is at its best in maintaining stabl... Read More »

Ex-Im and the Democratic Republic of the Congo President Obama and the First Lady pose with Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President of the DRC, and his wife, Mrs. Antoinette Sassou-Nguesso. The U.S. Statement Department reports the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a country with “major human rights problems.” One human rights organization labelled it the “rape capital of the world.” According to another report, women in this country were raped by security forces to stop “women speaking about politics, human rights and, in some cases, rape itself.” Despite these horrific abuses and the DRC’s ... Read More »

$10.3 Million: Ex-Im Acted “Fast” for Crony-Connected Solyndra “Ugh.” That’s exactly how taxpayers feel after losing money not just once but twice on the crony-connected and now-failed solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. Interestingly, both projects for Solyndra were dealt with rather quickly by the Obama Administration. Ex-Im boasts in its press release that the Solyndra project benefited from “fast due-diligence” and the Washington Post reports “the White House pushed loan reviewers to make a quick financing decision” on Solyndra’s loan guarantee. Here are the deal details: Not only were tax... Read More »

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling appeared this morning on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street to discuss the Committee’s Federal Reserve Centennial Oversight Project and the fourth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act being signed into law. CLICK HERE TO WATCH Hensarling on yesterday’s committee hearing with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve Accountability Act: “Earlier in her career as a central banker, in referring to one monetary policy rule in particular -- the Taylor rule -- she said ‘that's what sensible, central bankers do.’ So I suppose she has t... Read More »

Why Are American Taxpayers Financing an Aquarium in Brazil? A rendering of the Acquario Aquarium in Fortaleza, Brazil (Ex-Im Release) Brazilians still embarrassed by their team’s stunning loss to Germany in the World Cup will soon be able to seek refuge in this “spectacular aquarium on the beach in Fortaleza,” in the words of Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg. American taxpayers will be financing the project through a direct loan approved by the Export-Import Bank to the Brazilian state of Ceará. Two questions come to mind: 1. Will the aquarium be the home for the next psychic octopus... Read More »

e·gre·gious -- outstandingly bad; shocking It pays to have cronies in high places, especially at the Export-Import Bank it seems. The Ex-Im Bank gave millions in taxpayer-backed loans for Spanish green energy company Abengoa International – while former Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) sat on the advisory boards for both. Here are the deal details: Richardson joined Ex-Im’s advisory board near the end of 2012, around the same time that two Ex-Im Bank loans benefitting Abengoa were issued. Those taxpayer-backed loans totaled around $150 million. As one newspaper noted, “critics say Richardson’s hol... Read More »

Inaccuracy #1: “When the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened in 2011, the best available government office space large enough to accommodate its thousand-plus employees was a run-down concrete building on G Street near the White House that once housed the now-defunct Office of Thrift Supervision.” Facts: The House Financial Services Committee has investigated whether 1700 G Street was in fact the “best available” office space for the CFPB at the time the Bureau opened. Earlier this year, the Committee requested that the CFPB produce “copies of all documents prepared by the Bureau,... Read More »

Americans are increasingly alarmed about Russia’s nationalism and military aggression (just look at this week’s Pew Research poll), but the Export-Import Bank doesn’t seem to care. In fact, Ex-Im’s financing of Russian projects jumped 177% during Fiscal Year 2013 to a record $580 million. (Ex-Im Bank 2013 Annual Report) Hardworking Americans taxpayers should be asking why they’re on the hook for Russian oil projects funneled to Vladimir Putin’s cronies while they’re struggling to pay for higher gas prices here at home and NATO issues warnings of further Russian aggression. Here are the deal de... Read More »

Hardworking American taxpayers, who are paying more for gas (“Gasoline prices at six-year high – AAA”) and “more for almost everything this year” (CNBC), might be wondering why President Obama refuses to approve the Keystone Pipeline but is using their tax dollars to finance foreign corporate welfare -- like the nearly $5 billion in direct loans to help build a venture developed by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company. This is the same Saudi Aramco, by the way, that one report this week said is “pulling the rug out from under the U.S. gas industry” and has announced plans to s... Read More »