The Ex-Im Bank’s charter expired two months ago now, and contrary to the many ”jobs will instantly disappear” predictions, the only result of Ex-Im’s lapse has been major beneficiaries engaging in political threats. Boeing and GE threaten to leave the country, then GE says it won’t move its headquarters to Texas because Chairman Hensarling is a relentless advocate for ending Ex-Im. The National Association of Manufacturers says it “will be ceasing all fundraising activity for the ongoing presidential race as it focuses its efforts on getting Ex-Im back in action.” Finally, Boeing claims that in spite of its $90 billion market cap, its billion-dollar financing arm, record profits and prospects and massive backlogs, which will keep the company and its workers busy for about seven years even without a single new order, it will be forced to cut several hundred of jobs if Ex-Im isn’t reauthorized.
Boeing’s bullying response to Ex-Im’s not being reauthorized shouldn’t surprise us. After all, it was called Boeing Bank for a reason – the company benefited from 40 percent of Ex-Im’s activities last year and roughly 68 percent of its total long-term guarantees. No matter which Ex-Im program you look at, Boeing will often appears as one of the top beneficiaries (as it does in Ex-Im’s quintessential “small business program,” Working Capital Programs):
I imagine that the company’s executives are also outraged and a little bit stunned that this time around, its massive lobbying effort ($69 million since 2012, according to the New York Times) hasn’t produced the usual large returns. So expect the company to continue beating the drum about all the terrible consequences the end of Ex-Im will have on its bottom line and the welfare of its workers — even though nothing is likely to happen and big companies will continue to go about their big company business. But for now, we can take comfort in knowing that this New Deal–era program is still in liquidation.