July 15, 2014
Wow, the pundit class is really worried about the Export-Import Bank reauthorization. Today’s big shot comes from NYT columnist Joe Nocera.
Nocera is honest enough to acknowledge that big companies like Boeing and Caterpillar are the main recipients of support. The Export-Import bank supporters have been pushing the line that most loans go to small businesses. This is of course true, but most of the money goes to the Boeings and Caterpillars, and serious people care about the money, not the number of loans going out the bank’s door.
Nocera’s twist is that real beneficiaries are the customers of the big companies, not the companies:
“First, customers of these big companies get the bulk of the Ex-Im Bank’s assistance. …
“Second, most of the arguments made against the Ex-Im Bank revolve around its help to the big companies, not the small ones. For instance, it is argued that big companies have their own means of helping customers finance deals. That’s true, but it’s the customers, not the companies, that are pushing for export credit guarantees. A Boeing source told me that it is hearing from customers and potential customers about the fate of the Ex-Im Bank. ‘It’s a big deal,’ my source said, especially in places like Africa, where conventional financing for aircraft is hard to come by.”
Okay, this one should get be worth a big burst of laughter from a comedy show laugh track. Imagine that, a “Boeing source” told a New York Times columnist that the Export-Import Bank is really about helping the companies customers. Yeah, how could anyone question that. (This is like when companies oppose pollution regulations because they are worried about their workers’ jobs.)
The story here is not very complicated for believers in economics. If there were no subsidies from the Bank, Boeing would have to accept somewhat lower profits on its deals. It would likely make up some, but not all, of the value of the Bank’s subsidy. This means that the customers would be looking at slightly higher prices. Life’s tough. (Let’s get a list of the customers and see if they rank higher than veterans or inner city kids as beneficiaries of the taxpayers largesse.)
In some cases, the higher price will mean that Boeing will lose the deal to a competitor. That’s known as capitalism, it happens all the time.
It speaks volumes that at the same time the establishment pundits are getting hysterical over the dire consequences of not reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank, the WTO issued a ruling against the U.S. over tariffs against Chinese and Indian steel imports. This ruling is likely to cost more U.S. jobs than the shutting of the Ex-Im Bank, but odds are none of the pundits will speak against it. Draw your own conclusions.
Of course the real free trade position is to lower the value of the dollar against other countries’ currencies. That is how a trade deficit is supposed to be corrected in a world of floating exchange rates, like the one we are supposed to have. However the dollar does not fall to bring our deficit into balance because many countries, most notably China, buy up hundreds of billions of dollars to keep the dollar over-valued. The over-valued dollar makes our exports expensive (like taking away the subsidy from the Ex-Im Bank) and makes imports cheaper to people in the United States, crowding out domestically produced goods.
In an economy suffering from secular stagnation, we have no market mechanism to replace the $500 billion dollars in demand (3 percent of GDP) lost to the trade deficit. Adding in a multiplier effect, this deficit costs us around $750 billion in annual output or around 6 million jobs. Unlike the Ex-Im Bank, there is real money and real jobs at stake with the value of the dollar. It would be great for Joe Nocera to write about that.
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