Free Republic

Like what Freddie King sang (Going down), we are going down the drain. Export prices by end us YoY is up to 18.8%, the highest in recorded history (or since 1983 when they started recording export prices). Import prices by end use rose to 12.5% YoY. Unrelated to US export and import prices, the MBA’s mortgage credit availability index slumped with the Covid outbreak and the explosion of The Fed’s Balance Sheet. As I have said before, nothing has been the same since Covid. Like Freddie King, “I’m Feeling Torn Down” by rising prices.

If Republicans aren’t already divided enough, several dozen party members have signed a petition that will force the House to vote on whether to revive a controversial government-run bank that helps big American companies sell goods overseas. Some 41 Republicans signed a so-called discharge petition in an effort to fully reopen the Export-Import Bank. They joined ranks with nearly all Democrats to meet the 218-vote threshold required to allow a bill to reach the House floor.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., kept a promise made to Democratics earlier this year that in exchange for their support on an important trade deal, he would allow a vote on a measure to extend the bank.... Obama administration is closer than ever on a breakthrough on the biggest trade deal in world history. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-pact-challenges-120600.html All the Good ol Boys are convinced we the people, maintain generic, or self-inflicted stupid. We the people keep proving it is so, up to the tipping p0int. Raben

Would you be shocked to find out that the corporatist, corrupt Export-Import Bank has ties to the Clintons and their notorious foundation? During a hearing about the soon-to-expire bank before the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday, Representative Duffy [WI - Chairman of Oversite Committee] exposed just such connections: [VIDEO - 5:20] This is a perfect example of the unhealthy marriage between the private sector and government. This is what political privilege looks like, and it’s corrupting and unfair. I testified yesterday before the Senate Banking Committee on the need to end Ex-Im as well – here’s my testimony.

The Export-Import Bank’s relationship with a politically connected consulting firm has come under scrutiny as its clients benefited from millions of dollars in financing from the bank. However, a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a government watchdog has been pending for more than 500 days, highlighting the Export-Import Bank’s issues with transparency. “They’re just unresponsive,” Veronique de Rugy, senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, told The Daily Signal. “They just seem to refuse to let [the public] in.” McLarty Associates—run by former President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff Thomas McLarty—bills itself as a consulting...

There’s only “one member of the Republican Party” holding up reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, according to Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer: Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. “I don’t think there’s any doubt [he's] the one holding it up,” the Maryland Democrat told reporters at his weekly press briefing Tuesday morning. “It’s not an impression. It’s a fact.” Hoyer went on to say that House GOP leaders, particularly outgoing Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, want to reauthorize the institution designed to help U.S. companies finance goods for sale overseas. The two lawmakers actually worked closely together at the...

The Export-Import Boondoggle House Chamber, Washington, D.C. May 9, 2012 Mr. Speaker: The Export-Import Bank dragoons American taxpayers into subsidizing loans to foreign companies, making it cheaper for them to buy products from politically-favored American companies which in turn use those products to compete against less-favored American companies. Past beneficiaries include such upstanding enterprises as Solyndra and Enron. Since 2007, almost half of its money has gone to support that plucky little start-up called Boeing. Air India got $5 billion to purchase Boeing aircraft allowing them to undercut American carriers like Delta with their own tax money. We’re told we...