The Export-Import Bank, a government agency that subsidizes U.S. exports, has been caught red-handed improperly classifying big businesses — including companies owned by billionaire Warren Buffett — as small businesses when portraying themselves as a friend of small business.
Reuters studied the deals Ex-Im has classified as directly supporting small-business and found the agency’s data false:
Here’s more, from Reuters:
Ex-Im’s charter expires in June, and critics point out that 64 percent of its taxpayer-backed financing goes to the ten largest exporters. The agency has the nickname “Boeing’s Bank” for a good reason.
So Ex-Im officials are pretty sensitive about this whole subsidizing-big-business thing. As a result, the agency touts how much it supports small business, often with misleading figures, such as using improper accounting to claim a profit, peddling useless job-creation numbers, and counting the number of transactions that go to small business instead of the amount of subsidy dollars. The Reuters study found that even these numbers aren’t reliable:
