Ex-Im Bank loans $57 million to Indian firm and rival of John Deere for solar plant in India

John Deere marker, Tampico, IL

That New Deal relic, the Export-Import Bank, just loaned Mahindra & Mahindra, a tractor manufacturer from India, s $57 million for a solar power plant project. In India. Isn't the Ex-Im Bank supposed to help domestic firms? It gets worse. Mahindra & Mahindra is one of the John Deere Corporation's biggest competitors. The Moline-based firm is one of Illinois' oldest going-concerns. MM became the world's largest tractor maker earlier this year and it ran a television commercial in America celebrating the achievement.

Okay, if the Ex-Im bank, a federally-chartered credit agency, is going to pick winners and losers, can it at least give its nod to an American firm?

As for John Deere, its slogan is "Nothing runs like a Deere." Of course a foreign firm receiving federal loans for a favored industry, solar, will probably run a whole lot faster.

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Latest solar failure received Ex-Im Bank loan

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"John Deere Green Womens Shirt"