quote:

ORIGINAL: BanthaSamantha
I don't understand, not a single tax dollar was lost in this venture. Every dollar loaned was returned promptly and with interest.

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ORIGINAL: provfivetine

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ORIGINAL: BanthaSamantha
I don't understand, not a single tax dollar was lost in this venture. Every dollar loaned was returned promptly and with interest.

LOL. That's a complete myth. Even the GAO said so.

"The Treasury is unlikely to recover the entirety of its investment in Chrysler or GM, given that the companies' values would have to grow substantially more than they have in the past." The more recent April 2010 report, which said nothing to contradict the 2009 report, is here.

Remember, the government only gave GM 6 billion dollars as a pure loan, because 50 billion--for GM--(80+ for the auto industry) came in other avenues. Most of the bailout money came from the purchase of equity stakes, which was an even worse deal for taxpayers since this puts them on the hook for the investment without any guarantee. Also, the Canucks gave GM a billion or so as a pure loan, and about 8 billion with the equity stake.

So when all the Obama slappies talk about repaying the loan, they are only talking about the 6 billion dollars that was loaned (and that wasn't even paid back in the first place). Since the Obama administration is a stalwart economic powerhouse they put over 10 billion dollars in an escrow account when GM declared bankruptcy. In short, the GM is using government money to pay back the government loan.

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ORIGINAL: BanthaSamantha

It is very important to make sure your facts are accurate and that your conclusions correctly derive from your facts.

You make repeated reference to President Obama, so I think it is fair to assume you're talking about his contribution to the auto industry. He issued a loan for $8.5B. The previous President loaned $4B. So far, $10.6B of the loan has been paid back, which accounts for every single penny of Obama's loan as well as a substantial chunk of Bush's loan.

It is important to remember that, prior to the actions of the Obama Administration, the entirety of the Bush loan was essentially written off as a loss. In this sense, Not only did President Obama get completely reimbursed for the entirety of his investment, but he recovered the majority of President Bush's investment, money that was originally considered unrecoverable.

I laud you for using the GAO reports for your figures, but I also chide you for stopping your analysis at a report that is over two years old.

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ORIGINAL: provfivetine

What happened was that the government stole 80+ billion dollars from the taxpayers, who are losing billions from this so-called investment. I can create the world's largest auto manufacturer too if I'm allowed to externalize my theft onto the tax-base. GM will be back in bankruptcy again since bailing them out did nothing to help the fundamentals of that company, but only exacerbated the structural problems which still remain.

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ORIGINAL: provfivetine
Re-read the first sentence of this quote and apply it to your own thesis.

The GAO specifically states that the treasury is unlikely to recover from its investment. In other words, the government is saying that the government won't recover from this investment. That's from the horses mouth. And of course it's two years old; that's when SHTF. You didn't read any of it did you?