Quote:
Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen
And now GM is back to the top spot in the automotive industry and have paid back almost all of their bailout money. Boy was I critical of that bailout when it happened, calling it government pork, anti-capitalist and predicting the company's failure. Goes to show what the hell I know.
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No Takeda - GM paid back the governmental LOANS- a total of about 6.7 Billion. However, GM recieved a total of $52 Billion in bailout funds. They have NOT paid that amount back - nore are there any plans to do so because the remaining $45.3 Billion were free and clear, a true bailout grant.
In April of 2010 GM announced it had "paid back" the bailout money - research showed that was false. Here is some data.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/04/2...ailout-payback
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/23/gen...ha-dalmia.html
http://www.consumerismcommentary.com...loans-in-full/
When the real data came out - the CEO of GM had to admit that it would take "years" to pay it all back.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/...68F2NB20100916
In the end - the President had to admit that the taxpayers were going to lose about $14 billion even after repayment....
http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/21/auto...ains/index.htm
Its a net loss regardless..... investment that could have been used elsewhere to save a company that should have gone under. Bailouts are bad - regardless of whether is auto, or finance. And I work for a bank...
Also - yes - a few Billion is a "drop in the bucket" when our national yearly debt is well over a trillion - but until we stop all the drops in that bucket - it will continue to overflow and spill out our debt in ever increasing amounts.
(edited to provide a more trustworthy link on the 14 billion loss)