ABSTRACT
The anti-corporate welfare coalition of libertarians, anti-corporate leftists, free-market economists, and good-government activists who abhor the pork barrel achieves a state of virtual apoplexy when the subject turns to the Export-Import Bank, the notorious "reverse Robin Hood" that takes from the poor-or, more accurately, the poor beleaguered taxpayer-and gives to the richest corporations in the world. There is no constitutional authorization for the federal government to subsidize or guarantee exports, but the prevailing mood in the mid-1930s among those with access to the levers of power was that the Constitution was a relic of horse-and-buggy days. Those seeking credit for transactions abroad turned to Washington, and the Roosevelt administration was happy to oblige them. Organization and reorganization proceeded at what, for Washington, was breakneck speed. On June 30, 1934, the Second Bank's portfolio was extended to all nations except that which was covered by the First Bank, the Soviet Union.
