In Case You Missed It

  Since the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has morphed into a government institution whose unconventional activities and vastly expanded powers would scarcely be recognized by drafters of the original legislation that created it. Regrettably, commensurate transparency and accountability have not followed.  Since… Read more »

Dodd-Frank turns 5: What mess …what Dodd-Frank actually did was to deliver yet another massive government intervention to cover up the lies of past government interventions that directly led to last decade's economic meltdown. …What an absolute mess. And it's exactly what you get when,… Read more »

  CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL EDITORIAL Perhaps you haven’t heard that the charter for the Export-Import Bank ended on June 30. That’s right, a New Deal-era program has expired, and almost no one noticed. Pity, then, that some Republicans are working to resurrect this unnecessary subsidy for… Read more »

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. This law was hastily enacted as a reaction to the financial crisis and is filled with unintended consequences and misguided policies. While Dodd-Frank supposedly targeted Wall Street, it is Main Street that has felt the brunt of its costly and overwhelming regulations. Republican Members of the Financial… Read more »

  Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) discussed the Export-Import Bank and the Dodd-Frank Act with Mary Kissel of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board. Excerpts from their conversation are below. Chairman Hensarling on the Export-Import Bank: "There’s a lot of things wrong with it. One, you’re transferring… Read more »

LINK TO STORY The 80-year old Export-Import Bank will begin to wind down on June 30, unless Congress renews it again. Republicans in the House and Senate need to let it expire—and as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, I am helping lead the charge to see that we do. Ex-Im arranges taxpayer-backed financing to… Read more »

    By Dallas Morning News Editorial Board June 1, 2015 Congress returns to its business facing a question that manifestly affects our business: How much should the federal government jam a meaty thumb onto the scale and favor one company over another? This is what the Export-Import Bank of the United States… Read more »

  By Wall Street Journal Editorial Board May 25, 2015 LINK TO STORY The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has again done the public service of toting up all the implied and explicit government guarantees backing the U.S. financial system. Are you sitting down? Richmond Fed researchers find that as of the end of 2013 taxpayers were standing behind nearly $26 trillion of financial… Read more »

    By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL May 1, 2015 LINK TO STORY   In October 2005, earmarks were a Washington fact of life. Then former Oklahoma Sen.Tom Coburn took to the floor to decry pork spending for Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere.” The phrase became a national rallying cry against government waste. It required another five years, but in… Read more »

  The Peculiar Uses of a Taxpayer Bank A look at the Export-Import Bank’s beneficiaries suggests that sometimes it works against U.S. interests abroad. By Mark Pfeifle Only in Washington can a prominent example of corporate welfare be described as a “critical element”… Read more »