Fed govt sold last shares of GM. Lost $10B

[JEDI]

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/09/news/companies/gm-bailout-stock-sale/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

The Treasury Department has sold its final stake in General Motors, closing the book on its 2009 bailout of the auto industry. GM has been revived and is now profitable, but taxpayers are out more than $10 billion dollars.

also, Treasury lost an estimated $1.3 billion in its bailout of Chrysler Group.


Is it me, or did Ford screw itself by opting not to get a govt handout?

edit:
were there any winners in the GM bail out?
- GM mgmt team got canned.
- Stock holders had their shares go down to $0, just as if GM declared bankruptcy.

Did the GM employees and car parts companies come out ahead?
if GM went bankrupt, somebody would have bought the name and started a new car company.

 

[brianmanahan]

expected a better rant. dmcowen would be ashamed of you. step it up kid.

 

[MaxPayne63]

Meh, the fed can print almost twice that much in a week.

 

[JEDI]

expected a better rant. dmcowen would be ashamed of you. step it up kid.

didn't feel like making this into a P&N category.
so keeping it light in off-topic

 

[Dumac]

Irony: The new Virgin Mary aborted the 2nd coming of Christ in 2000

Is that supposed to be thought provoking?

 

[Brovane]

And people bitch about Tesla Motors getting a government loan and then paying it all back with Interest.

 

[Pocatello]

It's worth it. $10 Big One for a nice Corvette at last. We put in $10 B per year into Iraq and thousands of American lives and limbs so Iran can control it instead of Saddam Hussein. We also put in around $4 B a year into Afghanistan since 2001 so we can have more poppy flowers an more movies about the Navy SEAL.

 

[sdifox]

chomp change compared to this

http://theweek.com/article/index/221883/

 

[brianmanahan]

didn't feel like making this into a P&N category.
so keeping it light in off-topic

ok then, i forgive you! :awe:

 

[Fritzo]

They lost $10B but probably gained $50B+ in tax revenue by keeping them in business.

 

[LegendKiller]

chomp change compared to this

http://theweek.com/article/index/221883/

Ohh for fucks sake, not this shit again.

When are you people going to give it up?

 

[senseamp]

Not a bad deal, considering the alternative of having the US auto industry decimated.

 

[Texashiker]

The Treasury Department has sold its final stake in General Motors, closing the book on its 2009 bailout of the auto industry. GM has been revived and is now profitable, but taxpayers are out more than $10 billion dollars.

also, Treasury lost an estimated $1.3 billion in its bailout of Chrysler Group.

That is chumpchange compared to the $85 billion the fed is dumping into the market every month.

So what is the government lost 11.3 billion. In the grand scheme of things that is a drop in the bucket.

 

[mpo]

Not a bad deal, considering the alternative of having the US auto industry decimated.

The Center for Automotive Research came to a similar conclusion:

“Once again, the results for upper Midwest states such as Michigan, Ohio and Indiana of this relocation would have been severe in the long term,” the study concluded. “Double-digit unemployment rates would still exist in these states today.”

McAlinden said the failures of GM and Chrysler would have triggered a massive crisis in the automotive industry supply chain that, in turn, would have caused widespread layoffs at automakers that didn’t seek government aid.

In addition to GM and Chrysler jobs, the report estimates that 90% of U.S. employees at Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes and BMW would been laid off for at least a year.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013312090100

 

[schneiderguy]

Not a bad deal, considering the alternative of having the US auto industry decimated.

How many billions of dollars would the government have to lose before rescuing a failed company that makes shitty products would be a "bad deal"?

 

[senseamp]

How many billions of dollars would the government have to lose before rescuing a failed company that makes shitty products would be a "bad deal"?

When it costs more than the alternative of letting them fail.

 

[Genx87]

When it costs more than the alternative of letting them fail.

Why not extend it to every business then?

 

[sportage]

I bought my 2013 Ford.
Better than a damn Kia.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

When it costs more than the alternative of letting them fail.

The alternative would of meant a larger and more open market for other new and surviving car markers to compete in and grow in a efficient manner. A market that would better make use of resources in society instead of propping up companies that failed to adapt to changing market conditions.

 

[Naeeldar]

The alternative would of meant a larger and more open market for other new and surviving car markers to compete in and grow in a efficient manner. A market that would better make use of resources in society instead of propping up companies that failed to adapt to changing market conditions.

I think you fail to understand how many jobs are tied to the American Auto industry and I'm not even talking about the companies themselves but the thousands upon thousands of suppliers to them.

I'm republican when it comes to fiscal interests but the fact of the matter is AIG and the auto-industry bail outs were incredibly smart moves. They would not have been a death blow to the economy but it sure would have put us into the ICU so to speak. We are talking several million jobs tied to all of those and the domino effect was incalcuable - especially with AIG.

 

[Jhhnn]

The alternative would of meant a larger and more open market for other new and surviving car markers to compete in and grow in a efficient manner. A market that would better make use of resources in society instead of propping up companies that failed to adapt to changing market conditions.

I'll take "right wing pablum" for $300, Alex.

 

[rudeguy]

But wait. All the Dems told us the government made money on this deal.

And they announced years ago that GM had paid the money back.

I can't believe they would lie to us like that!

 

[qwchrbichn]

I'm republican when it comes to fiscal interests but the fact of the matter is AIG and the auto-industry bail outs were incredibly smart moves. They would not have been a death blow to the economy but it sure would have put us into the ICU so to speak. We are talking several million jobs tied to all of those and the domino effect was incalcuable - especially with AIG.

In your opinion. To extend the metaphor, our economy was already in the ICU. Sadly, our economy has remained in the ICU due in no small part to the TARP programs and the continued tinkerings of the central planning types.

 

[qwchrbichn]

Also, it's pretty easy to get back to profitability when the government allows tens of billions in tax write offs and sends you some massive contracts.

 

[Naeeldar]

In your opinion. To extend the metaphor, our economy was already in the ICU. Sadly, our economy has remained in the ICU due in no small part to the TARP programs and the continued tinkerings of the central planning types.

You do realize republicans started the bail out right? Second, it is a fact that millions of jobs were tied to those bail outs.

You can say somebody may have come in and bought them but it's highly unlikely for the most part. Also the stoppage alone of the bankruptcy proceedings would have been enough to put a lot of the smaller suppliers ( which is many of them ) out of business as well.

And yes obviously the economy was hurting. Losign 3 millions jobs would have made it hurt exponentially worse. You can't blindly act like that wouldn't have been a disaster. Period.