James H. Lambright, head of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., has been tapped for one of the top jobs overseeing the $700-billion financial bailout.
Unlike Neel Kashkari and Henry Paulson whom he will be advising as interim chief investment officer, Lambright has no ties to the Goldman Sachs Group. Trend watchers have noted, though, that like both of his bosses, he is a bald Midwesterner who has overseen billions-worth of deals.
Supporters credit Lambright with making the little-known federal credit agency self-sustaining. A native of St. Louis, MO, he has run the export-import bank, charged with providing financial support to foreign buyers to purchase U.S. goods, since 2005.
“Successfully converted the Export-Import Bank to a self-financing agency, returning positive net income to the Treasury while taking no appropriated funds from Congress in FY 2008,” according to the Treasury’s announcement. He has managed 400 employees and a $60-billion credit portfolio there.
But others are highly critical of the agency, contending it has favored politically-connected Fortune 500 corporations like Boeing, Bechtel and Halliburton over the interests of small businesses and even, they argue, the U.S. taxpayer.
In an Examiner column last year, Timothy P. Carney, author of The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government steal your money, called Ex-Im “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.
Indeed, the agency’s 2007 annual report lists loan guarantees and other financial supports to Boeing, Bechtel Corporation, Deere & Company, Diebold Inc. and Halliburton Co., among other large corporations. It notes that almost 27 percent of its total authorizations went to small businesses.
Prior to going to the export bank in 2001, Lambright, 38, worked for Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. in Los Angeles, Calif., where he specialized in underwriting real estate and venture capital transactions. Credit Suisse has trained many of those guiding the bank rescue effort in Britain according to Dow Jones’ Financial News.
Lambright, a Harvard Law School graduate, was a surprise pick for the post, according to media reports.
State Department Under Secretary Reuben Jeffery had been slated for the position, but officials decided to keep him there to guide the upcoming meeting of world leaders on global financial markets.
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