I know it’s unseemly to brag, but I just couldn’t help but feel vindicated when I read this article in the Wall Street Journal today about recent complaints by the Air Transport Association to the Export‐​Import Bank of the United States regarding their loan guarantees to foreign airliners.


On page 15 of my recent Trade Policy Analysis, “Time to X Out the Ex‐​Im Bank”, I warn: “…the billions of dollars the bank authorizes each year in financing to foreign airlines to buy American aircraft could be seen as a way of helping foreign airlines compete against American ones.”


Behold, buried on page B4:

In a letter to Ex‐​Im Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg earlier this month, the Air Transport Association, a trade group for America’s biggest carriers, called on the federal agency to slash subsidies to all overseas buyers of Boeing jets.


“The bank’s support for foreign airlines injures U.S. carriers,” said ATA outside counsel Michael K. Kellogg…

</​smug>