Get a load of this crap...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...er-investment/

 

wow..

 

Let's tip our hats once more to the legacy of GW Bush:

12/22/08
The auto-industry bailout saga came to an end, at least temporarily, on December 19th, 2008, when President Bush announced a $13.4 billion bailout from TARP funds. While still against the notion of using TARP funds for such a bailout, the President acknowledged the unique circumstances affecting the Detroit auto companies and the disastrous consequences that could result from their disorderly bankruptcies.

http://detroit.about.com/od/bigthree...to_bailout.htm

Some people never learn, he has been quoted as saying he would do it again given the same situation....

 

So its Bush's fault the government has now sold its shares before making back the money we loaned?

 

Not the story I heard at the chrysler proving grounds

 

It may have happened with Bush as president (buying the company) but as many may recall, it was a democrat led initiative by the democrat majority in congress during the end of the bush admin.

 

X2 ^
obama gave them money as well lets not forget his screw ups!

 

Don't cloud the situation with facts. Much nicer to say it is Bush's fault for everything bad. Now it is Bush's fault we are getting no rain down here in South Texas!

 

on the plus side, the government is out of the car business with them and compared to most of the bail out money, they got most of it back while keeping thousands of Americans employeed and no telling how many homes and business out of foreclosure.

i wonder how much income tax the employees of chrysler pay per year to the IRS.

 

Wow! It has been a while since we had a topic in here!

Since I live in michigan you can see how hard hit the state is because of the downfall of the big 3. Around the Chrysler Building there are a ton of resturants out of business. My dad used to work for a company called Unified Systems after baxter closed his plant instead of one in india. They made car parts such as convertable tops for the Solara and Solstice. That place closed. Its such a ripple effect if the big 3 or even foreign companys lessen their production its hard to see how many vacant shops there are in my area. The bailouts were for the better IMO.

 

Bit hypocritical of you on this one.

You want all subsidies gone but this is for the better ?

A bit of a NNIMBY attitude here.

When the Senate went on the witch hunt to Oil companies ( trying to create a bill of attainder that went nowhere) you were all over how it should be done to all companies.
The Domestic Manufacturing tax deduction ( which was 1 of the 5 taxes you suggested should be done away with ) would have hit the big 3 pretty hard ( almost as hard as GE, if not harder ).

I can only guess this is a geographically formed opinion, but can you explain how the deals cut to 2 of the big 3 were for the better ?
Chrysler, with the early cash in, is an example of a subsidy, it is money given to them, and not required to be paid back.

I have no idea why the rush to cash in on this ~ 6 years ahead of schedule ( at least that is the only thing I can find, nothing to the contrary ).

 

You don't know that the money would have ever come back or that the stock would retain it's value over the course of the loan. Toxic asset imo.

 

Good point, there is nothing that says the stock will be worth anything, let alone break up value or even par value.
GM proved this with the last incarnation of the stock.

Fiat did negotiate the right to force the US Govt to sell the shares, at their demand, back to Fiat at any time, as part of the bail out package, along with the ~ 12 B they gave in loans. Fiat is using this cheap stock price to meet the time line, ownership requirements.

The Canadian govt does not have this in their loans terms, as part of the 1.7B in loans they provided ( which totals < 2% ownership in the company ).
With the stock not being public, the last round that Fiat purchased back in 2009, puts the Canadian govt's ownership at ~ USD$ 100M. Don't know straight away if the Canadian govt is going to sell the part they own.
I could see fiat being slimy enough to make it part of the deal with the US govt shares, which puts the US govt leaning on the Canadian govt.

The one hanging out in the wind on this, is a Union pension fund that is holding ~ 40% ownership of the company.
Right now, that is a big toxic asset that could bite the tax payers in the rear if it goes bust, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has to back stop it.
The stock that Fiat is forcing the US Govt into the fire sale on is ~6% of the company from what I recall. don't know what this 6% was used as collateral on ( just the ~ 12B in loans, or if this includes the other loans of ~ 5B, for a total of 17B in loans ??)

This is what comes from negotiating from weak position, it was the US govt putting in all the risk, with little chance of reward to get Fiat to take over the place. In short, Fiat bought Chrysler Group LLC with Us tax payers money. Strong work on the US Fed with TARP.

Don't look to the MSM to point out how this is more of a debacle by a long shot when compared to what is going on with the banks.

 

Oh dear god, the oil companys have record profit and the auto industry nearly died putting a large ammount of people out of work.

The reason why I say it was for the better is because if we let them go under, unemployment would be somthing like 9.7-10% Yes, it is geographically formed, because michigan would be done. It would effect everyone in michigan. sorry for the pro bailout bias. this debate is all opinion though because we dont know how bad it would have been.

 

Glad that isn't happening! Yea right!