The head of the Export-Import bank just got named as the chief investment officer for the Trash Asset Relief Program. Be afraid. Be very afraid. And not just because we've got another of Bald midwestern ex-Wall Streeter running our banking system.
James H. Lambright will serve as the interim Chief Investment Officer for the Tarp. He comes to us after three years of running the Ex-Im Bank, one of the greatest corporate welfare boondoggles running. His great accomplishment at Ex-Im was removing its Congressional oversight and running it as an off-balance sheet special purpose vehicle.
The government describes the Ex-Im bank’s huge liabilities and off-balance sheet chicanery as Lambright’s qualification for the job of being top investment officer for the Tarp.
John's brother Timothy Carney was sniffing out the Ex-Im scam a year ago:
Ex-Im is a posterboy for corporate welfare. Its mission is to transfer money from U.S. taxpayers, through foreign buyers, and ultimately into the pockets of American companies. While the agency touts its support for small business, a vast majority of its money goes to subsidize sales by the largest corporations in America.
The money from Ex-Im loans and loan guarantees — the agency’s biggest transactions, and the only kinds that are itemized in Ex-Im’s annual report — goes overwhelmingly to a handful of large corporations,including Halliburton, Bechtel, General Electric, Caterpillar and Westinghouse.But there’s a reason Ex-Im is known as “Boeing’s Bank.”
In fiscal years 1998 through 2005, Ex-Im has issued $63.5 billion in loans and long-term guarantees. In those years, $33 billion of Ex-Im subsidies went to Boeing. That means that a majority — 52 percent — of Ex-Im’s money went to help just one company.
