March 5, 2012 3:44PM 

# The Ex-Im Bank and Crony Capitalism 

By [Daniel J. Ikenson](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-j-ikenson) 

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My esteemed colleague Sallie James broke ground last summer with an [excellent expose ](https://www.cato.org/publications/trade-policy-analysis/time-x-out-exim-bank)of the corporate welfare role played by the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Until this past weekend, Sallie’s had been about the only analysis in the public domain to find the Ex-Im Bank’s activities unseemly, market-distorting, and anathema to free market capitalism.

Thus, I was heartened to see that an [editorial](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577249490813387030.html) in the last Saturday/​Sunday edition of the *Wall Street Journal* picked up on Sallie’s theme and emphasized some of her most salient points. Hopefully, the *WSJ* and other prominent news outlets read and amplify Sallie’s follow-up, forthcoming analysis, which shines some light on ExIm’s growing role in the business of financing the domestic sales of select U.S. companies.

##### Related Tags 

[Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) 

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